Editing Anton Webern (section)

====Mature conducting career====
[[File:Anton Webern (1883–1945) 1927 © Georg Fayer (1891–1950) OeNB 10450290.png|upright|thumb|Webern, 1927, portrait by [[Georg Fayer]]]]

Webern obtained work as [[music director]] of the {{lang|de|[[Wiener Schubertbund]]|italic=no}} 1921, having made an excellent impression as the vocal coach Schoenberg recommended for their 1920 performance of ''[[Gurre-Lieder]]''.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=242–243}} They nearly abandoned this project before Webern stepped in.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=242–243}} He led them in performances of Brahms, Mahler, Reger, and Schumann, among others.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=242–243}} But low salary, mandatory touring, and challenges to Webern's thorough rehearsals prompted him to resign in 1922.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=242–243}} He was also chorusmaster of the Mödling {{lang|de|Männergesangverein|italic=no}}{{efn|Men's Singing Society}} (1922–1926) until he resigned in controversy over hiring a Jewish soprano, Greta Wilheim, as a stand-in soloist for Schubert's ''[[Song of the Sea|Mirjams Siegesgesang]]''.{{sfnm|Bailey Puffett|1998|1loc=121|Krones|2007|2loc=Biographie, 1914–1933|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|3loc=292, 450}}

From 1922, Webern led the mixed-voice amateur {{lang|de|Singverein der Sozialdemokratischen Kunstelle|italic=no}}{{efn|Singing Society of the Social Democratic Arts Council}} and {{lang|de|Arbeiter-Sinfonie-Konzerte|italic=no}}{{efn|Workers' Symphony Concerts}} through [[David Josef Bach]], Director of the {{lang|de|Sozialdemokratische Kunststelle|italic=no}}.{{sfnm|Johnson|2006b|1loc=197|Krenek|1998|2loc=787–788|Krones|2007|3loc=Biographie, 1914–1933}}{{efn|Social Democratic Arts Council}} Webern won DJ Bach's confidence with a 1922 performance of Mahler's [[Symphony No. 3 (Mahler)|Symphony No. 3]] that established his reputation, prompting Berg to praise him as "the greatest conductor since Mahler himself".{{sfnm|Bailey Puffett|1998|1loc=112|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=245–249}}{{efn|[[Berthold Goldschmidt]] cautioned that the [[Second Viennese School]] were a "mutual admiration society".{{sfn|Foreman|1991|loc=8}}}} Webern's Mahler interpretations continued to be widely celebrated.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=front flap}}{{efn|Since 1902, Webern idolized Mahler as a leading musician, studying his conducting and viewing him as a "serious" and "introspective" if sometimes sentimental composer—perhaps his favorite alongside Beethoven and Schoenberg.{{sfnm|Bailey Puffett|1998|1loc=9, 14–15, 26, 30, 32, 36, 44–45|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=39–41, 56–57, 71, 74–76, 136, 144, 150–156, 168, 175, 465}} Mahler's music resonated with Webern as confiding "inner experiences", from an early "worship of nature" to a more abstract spirituality later.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=114}} In 1911, Webern aimed to convince his father of his conducting aspirations by taking him to back-to-back performances of Mahler's ''Symphony of a Thousand''.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=156}} In 1912, he wrote Berg that he "must conduct ... must perform Schoenberg and Mahler and everything that is sacred".{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=155}}}} From 1927, [[ORF (broadcaster)|RAVAG]] aired twenty-two of Webern's performances.{{sfn|Bailey Puffett|1998|loc=122}}

He premiered Berg's [[Kammerkonzert (Berg)|Chamber Concerto]] with soloists [[Rudolf Kolisch]] and [[Eduard Steuermann]] in 1927{{sfn|Hayes|1995|loc=161}} and led Stravinsky's ''[[Les Noces]]'' with [[Erich Leinsdorf]] among the pianists in 1933.{{sfnm|Antokoletz|2014|1loc=75, 225|Moldenhauer|1961|2loc=327}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/12/obituaries/erich-leinsdorf-81-a-conductor-of-intelligence-and-utility-is-dead.html |title=Erich Leinsdorf, 81, a Conductor of Intelligence and Utility, Is Dead |newspaper=The New York Times |date=12 September 1993 |last1=Holland |first1=Bernard |archive-date=21 October 2022 |access-date=21 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221021062234/https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/12/obituaries/erich-leinsdorf-81-a-conductor-of-intelligence-and-utility-is-dead.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{efn|Leinsdorf considered the experience of "utmost value to my musical and critical development".{{sfnm|Leinsdorf|1997|1loc=13|Stewart|1991|2loc=187}} The ''[[Renard (Stravinsky)#Score and music sample|popevki]]''-like [[List of set classes|3-7A]] [[Cell (music)|cell]] and [[List of set classes|4–10]] variant{{sfnm|Peyser|2008|1loc=80–81|Sills|2022|2loc=48–49, 84, 119–123|Toorn and McGinness|2012|3loc=43–52, 67–75, 124–126}} of ''Les Noces'' are not altogether unlike the rhythmized trichords of Webern's later [[Concerto for Nine Instruments (Webern)|Op. 24]]{{sfnm|Leeuw|2005|1loc=56–58|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=431–439|Puffett|1996|3loc=63}} or the tetrachords of Op. 30{{sfn|Leeuw|2005|loc=161}} (which Stravinsky later admired),{{sfn|Sills|2022|loc=48–49, 119–126, 284–285}} apart from Stravinsky's tendency to [[Anhemitonic scale|anhemitony]]{{sfnm|Maes|2002|1loc=284–285|Taruskin|1996b|2loc=383–413}} in marked contrast to Webern's hemitonicism.{{sfnm|Ewell|2013|1loc=219–223, 242|Hába|1934|2loc=15–17}}}} [[Armand Machabey]] noted Webern's regional reputation as a conductor of {{lang|fr|"haute valeur"}}{{efn|"high value"}} for his meticulous approach to then contemporary music, comparing him to [[Willem Mengelberg]] in ''[[Le Ménestrel]]'' (1930).{{sfn|Machabey|1930|loc=477}} Some on the left, notably {{ill|Oscar Pollak|de}} in ''[[Der Kampf (magazine)|Der Kampf]]'' (1929), criticized Webern's programming as more ambitious and [[bourgeois]] than popular and [[proletarian]].{{sfn|Johnson|2006a|loc=217}} And Webern seemed uneasy in his dependence on the Social Democrats for conducting work, perhaps on religious grounds, Krenek speculated.{{sfn|Krenek|1998|loc=787–788}} But [[Walter Kolneder]] wrote that "Artistic work for and with workers was [from] a ... Christian standpoint which Webern took very seriously".{{sfn|Kolneder|1968|loc=183, citing [[Roberto Gerhard]] and [[Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt]]}}