Webern-Im Sommerwind cover image (Carl Fischer, 1962)

Well, here’s a piece that I hadn’t even heard of until a few months ago when I stumbled upon a New York Philharmonic performance of it courtesy of InstantEncore. I’ve since learned that it was composed in 1904 and didn’t receive its premiere until 1962, by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. It appears that Webern was an extensive revisionist and published few of his early works, so it seems likely to me that this piece was never even available until 1962. I see some conductors, including Boulez, have worked at times to represent his catalog more fully and I’m inclined to think that may have been the case with Im Sommerwing. I’m intrigued by the fact that this piece subtitles itself as an “idyl”. In all my years following classical music, I haven’t been aware of that synonym for a tone poem until this and Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll came to my awareness.

First Impressions

Taking a page from my exercise a few weeks ago, I started off by looking through the score without a recording, picking out the themes I would be aware of and trying to hear them. The bird theme was going to be significant, I could tell. But what I was not aware of, as I was unable to fully hear the harmonies in my head, was the fact that this music reminds me a great deal of the many movements of Richard Strauss that I’ve become familiar with this year. I’m not completely sure what it is, but I think it relates to the wide and unusual intervals used in the melodies as well as the brass employed.