Schönberg : Verklärte Nacht (Piano Paraphrase)

00:00 Sehr langsam
07:15 Breiter und vibrierend
15:36 Sehr breit und langsam
18:34 Im Zeitmass
24:33 Sehr ruhig

I clearly remember the first time I heard the Verklärte Nacht, as it profoundly stunned me! It was the most enchanting music, and being a pianist, I felt really sorry that I could get no access to it.

Years after, having experienced transcribing music quite a bit through my work on Mahler's symphonies, I felt time had come for me to tackle the Transfigured Night. The first version I made of it was close to its original sextet version, in which the polyphony is very thick and all strings are almost in the same register. In a word, it didn't work at all. I threw it all into trash and decided to use the original version as a map through a long journey, keeping only the themes and materials I thought were most important, and getting rid of all the rest, replacing it by pianistic formulas. There is one short section where I couldn't find any pianistic solution, so I decided to cut it out. This is why I decided to call this a 'Paraphrase' instead of a transcription.

The influence of Liszt, Ravel and Scriabin are important in my writing, and even if not pretending having even a hint of their genius, their light inspired me and guided me through what has been the most challenging work I ever made. But this music was worth the doubts, the epiphanies, the countless hours of writing, erasing, and the sweat and tears I spent on it were worth it : I now can play it on the piano!

A few lines by Richard Dehmel, with whom it all started :

TRANSFIGURED NIGHT
"Two people walk through a bare, cold grove;
The moon races along with them, they look into it.
The moon races over tall oaks,
No cloud obscures the light from the sky,
Into which the black points of the boughs reach.

A woman’s voice speaks:
I’m carrying a child, and not yours,
I walk in sin beside you.
I have committed a great offense against myself.
I no longer believed I could be happy
And yet I had a strong yearning
For something to fill my life, for the joys of
Motherhood
And for duty; so I committed an effrontery,
So, shuddering, I allowed my sex
To be embraced by a strange man,
And, on top of that, I blessed myself for it.
Now life has taken its revenge:
Now I have met you, oh, you.

She walks with a clumsy gait,
She looks up; the moon is racing along.
Her dark gaze is drowned in light.

A man’s voice speaks:
May the child you conceived
Be no burden to your soul;
Just see how brightly the universe is gleaming!
There’s a glow around everything;
You are floating with me on a cold ocean,
But a special warmth flickers
From you into me, from me into you.
It will transfigure the strange man’s child.
You will bear the child for me, as if it were mine;
You have brought the glow into me,
You have made me like a child myself.

He grasps her around her ample hips.
Their breath kisses in the breeze.
Two people walk through the lofty, bright night."

Special thanks to 'Théâtre du Baladin' in Savièse, Switzerland and Service de la Culture de l'État du Valais for their generous support.

Beatrice Berrut, Piano
Recorded on a Bösendorfer VC280 by FNX music Romont.
Image : Christian Berrut and Vincent Roch
Sound : Christian Berrut