Editing Anton Webern (section)

=== Performance practice ===

{{Quote box|bgcolor=#FFFFF0|width=25%|quoted=true|salign=right|Eric Simon ... related ... : 'Webern was obviously upset by Klemperer's sober time-beating. ... [T]o the concert master [he] said: "... the phrase there ... must be played ''Tiiiiiiiiiii-aaaaaaaaa''." Klemperer, overhearing ... said sarcastically: "... [N]ow you probably know exactly how you have to play the passage!"' [[Peter Stadlen]] ... [described Webern]'s reaction after the performance: ... '"A high note, a low note, a note in the middle—like the music of a madman!"'|source=The Moldenhauers detailed Webern's reaction to [[Otto Klemperer]]'s 1936 Vienna performance of his Symphony (1928), Op. 21, which Webern played on piano for Klemperer "with ... intensity and fanaticism ... passionately".{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=470–471, 679–680}}}}

Webern notated [[Articulation (music)|articulations]], [[Dynamics (music)|dynamics]], {{lang|it|[[tempo rubato]]}}, and other [[musical expression]]s, coaching performers to adhere to these instructions but urging them to maximize expressivity through [[musical phrasing]].{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=470–471, 679–680}}{{efn|See ''{{ill|Werktreue|de}}''.{{sfn|Pace|2022b|loc=406–407}}}} This was supported by personal accounts, letters, and extant recordings of Schubert's ''Deutsche Tänze'' (arr. Webern) and [[Alban Berg|Berg]]'s [[Violin Concerto (Berg)|Violin Concerto]] under Webern's direction. [[Ian Pace]] considered [[Peter Stadlen]]'s account of Webern's coaching for [[Variations for piano (Webern)|Op. 27]] as indicating Webern's "desire for an extremely flexible, highly diaphanous, and almost expressively overloaded approach".{{sfn|Pace|2022b|loc=436, 439}}{{efn|Stadlen published a specially marked score.{{sfn|Jackson|2005|loc=465}}}}

This aspect of Webern's work was often overlooked in his immediate post-war reception,{{sfnm|Bolcom|2004|1loc=50|Bolcom|2016|Cook|2017|3loc=163, 201}} which was roughly coterminous with the [[early music revival]]. Stravinsky engaged with Webern and [[Renaissance music]] in his later music; his amanuensis Craft performed Webern as well as [[Monteverdi]], [[Heinrich Schütz|Schütz]], [[Giovanni Gabrieli|Gabrieli]], and [[Thomas Tallis|Tallis]].{{sfn|Johnson, J|2015|loc=108}} Many musicians performed "music that is at the same time old <em>and</em> new", as [[Nicholas Cook]] and Anthony Pople glossed it and as [[Richard Taruskin]] addressed. [[J. Peter Burkholder]] noted early and new music audience overlap.{{sfn|Burkholder|1983|loc=128–134}}

[[Felix Galimir]] of the Galimir Quartet told ''[[The New York Times]]'' (1981): "Berg asked for enormous correctness in the performance of his music. But the moment this was achieved, he asked for a very Romanticized treatment. Webern, you know, was also terribly Romantic—as a person, and when he conducted. Everything was almost over-sentimentalized. It was entirely different from what we have been led to believe today. His music should be played very freely, very emotionally."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/11/arts/felix-galimir-recalls-berg-and-webern-in-vienna.html |title=Felix Galimir Recalls Berg and Webern in Vienna |newspaper=The New York Times |date=11 Jan 1981 |last1=Horowitz |first1=Joseph}}</ref>