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Breaking Free: The World of Yesterday

Anton Lesser and Imogen Stubbs explore Stefan Zweig's Vienna through his elegiac memoir, The World of Yesterday. With music by Johann Strauss, Die Strottern, and Schoenberg.

Part of Radio 3's "Breaking Free - the minds that changed music", exploring the music of the Second Viennese School.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

New Year's Day 2017 17:30
成人快手 Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • GOETHE

    An Lottchen (To Charlotte) (extract), read by Imogen Stubbs

  • 00:00

    Karas

    Visions Of Vienna

    Performer: Anton Karas (zither).
    • The Very Best of Anton Karas (GBAJC0304241).
    • CD1.

  • STEFAN ZWEIG, trans. Harry Zohn

    The World from Yesterday (extract), read by Anton Lesser

  • 00:00

    GODOWSKY

    Alt Wien

    Performer: Marc-Andre Hamelin (piano).
    • HYPERION CDA67626.
    • 8.

  • FRANZ WERFEL, ed. Gustave Mathieu & Guy Stern

    To the Reader, read by Imogen Stubbs

  • 00:00

    Richard Strauss

    Moonlight Music (Capriccio)

    Performer: Staatskapelle Dresden, Rudolf Kempe (conductor).
    • WARNER 4317802.
    • 7.

  • STEFAN ZWEIG, trans. Harry Zohn

    The World from Yesterday (extract), read by Anton Lesser

  • 00:00

    EDWARD F. LOCKTON & RUDOLF SIECZYNSKI

    Vienna, City Of My Dreams

    Performer: Richard Tauber (tenor).
    • EMI (ISWC: T9000100550).
    • 17.
  • 00:00

    Rainer Maria Rilke

    Liebes Lied

    Performer: Oskar Werner.
    • RANDOM HOUSE 389830-025-0.
    • 6.

  • RAINER MARIA RILKE, trans. Susan Ranson & Marielle Sutherland

    Love Song, read by Imogen Stubbs

  • 00:00

    Fritz Kreisler

    Liebesleid

    Performer: Fritz Kreisler (violin), Franz Rupp (piano).
    • EMI CDH 764701-2.
    • 5.
  • 00:00

    MAHLER, arr. ALEXANDER SHEVCHENKO & MACIEJ GOLEBIOWSKI

    Schoenes Ding

    Performer: Alexander Shevchenko (accordion), Maciej Golebiowski (clarinet).
    • EX815-2.
    • 12.

  • STEFAN ZWEIG, trans. Harry Zohn

    The World from Yesterday (extract), read by Anton Lesser

  • 00:00

    ZEMLINSKY

    String Quartet No.1 (2nd movement)

    Performer: Schoenberg Quartet.
    • CHAN9772.
    • CD1 Tr2.

  • CHRISTIAN MORGENSTERN, ed. Gustave Mathieu & Guy Stern

    The Werewolf, read by Imogen Stubbs and Anton Lesser

  • 00:00

    Anton Webern

    4 Pieces for violin, Op.7

    Performer: Joseph Szigeti (violin) Roy Bogas (piano).
    • Philips PHCP 3893.
    • 14.

  • STEFAN ZWEIG, trans. Harry Zohn

    The World from Yesterday (extract), read by Anton Lesser

  • 00:00

    Rainer Maria Rilke

    Herbsttag

    Performer: Oskar Werner (reader).
    • RANDOM HOUSE 389830-025-0.
    • 20.

  • RAINER MARIA RILKE, trans. C. E. MacIntyre

    Autumn Day, read by Imogen Stubbs

  • 00:00

    NONO

    Liebeslied

    Performer: Wiener Jeunesse-Chor, Gunther Theuring (chorus master), Claudio Abbado (conductor).
    • DG 429 260.
    • 4.

  • NIETZSCHE, ed. Gustave Mathieu & Guy Stern

    Isolated, read by Anton Lesser

  • 00:00

    SCHOENBERG

    Piano Pieces, Op.19 No.2

    Performer: Neue Wiener Concert Schrammeln.
    • PR90653.
    • 5.

  • ROTH, trans. Michael Hoffmann

    The Emperor聮s Tomb (extract), read by Imogen Stubbs

  • 00:00

    TRADITIONAL VIENNESE

    Wann i amal stirb

    Performer: Die Strottern.
    • LC09587 Tr10.
    • 10.

  • LORCA

    Little Viennese Waltz, read by Anton Lesser

  • JAKOB VAN HODDIS, trans. Christopher Middleton

    End of the World, read by Imogen Stubbs

  • 00:00

    Gustav Mahler

    Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (Rueckert-Lieder)

    Performer: Christa Ludwig (mezzo-soprano), Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan (conductor).
    • DG 4593352.
    • 8.

  • DETLEV VON LILIENCRON, ed. Gustave Mathieu & Guy Stern

    The Music's Coming, read by Imogen Stubbs and Anton Lesser

  • 00:01

    SCHOENBERG

    Gavotte (Suite, Op.25)

    Performer: Maurizio Pollini (piano).
    • DG 423249-2.
    • 18.

  • STEFAN ZWEIG, trans. Harry Zohn

    The World from Yesterday (extract), read by Anton Lesser

  • 00:01

    Richard Strauss

    Dance of the Seven Veils (Salome)

    Performer: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan (conductor).
    • DECCA 417 788-2.
    • 9.

  • RILKE, ed. Gustave Mathieu & Guy Stern

    Spanish Dancer, read by Imogen Stubbs

Producer's Note

Stefan Zweig began writing his elegiac memoire, Die Welt von Gestern: Erinnerungen eines Europ盲ers (The World of Yesterday: Memories of a European), in 1934 whilst still living in Vienna. He carried the manuscript into exile via England, finally completing it in Brazil in early 1942.听 His grief over the demise of his Europe through two World Wars was so profound that he committed suicide with his wife, Lotte Altmann, the day after posting The World of Yesterday to his publisher in Stockholm.听 In the preface he wrote:

鈥業 have never attached so much importance to my own person that I would have been tempted to tell others the story of my life.听 Much had to occur, infinitely more events, catastrophes, and trials than are usually allotted to a single generation had to come to pass, before I found the courage to begin a book in which I was the principal person or, better still, the pivotal point.鈥�
(Stefan Zweig, trans. Harry Zohn; The World of Yesterday, Viking Press)

The World of Yesterday now stands as a literary tour-de-force on fin-de-la-siecle Vienna and the dying days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.听 Zweig not only paints a nostalgic picture of what he called 鈥榯he world of security鈥�, and explains how the Austro-Hungarian school system was designed to create a sense of stability by supressing the natural curiosity of its youth, but he also gives poignant analyses of how the First World War was triggered in Sarajevo and how the rise of anti-semitism swept across Europe from a humble workers鈥� demonstration in Vienna, and ultimately how the changing geo-political climate of Central Europe was inexorably driven to the catastrophe of the Second World War.听 Zweig was connected to so many other great literary and cultural names in early 20th-century Vienna, all of whom he mentions in his book: Rainer Maria Rilke, Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, Karl Kraus, Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg and many others.


In this special edition of Words and Music for Breaking Free 鈥� the minds that changed music, Anton Lesser reads extracts from The World of Yesterday that sequentially chronicle the shift in Zweig鈥檚 Vienna from the security of 19th-century Hapsburg Rule through the uncertainty of the First World War and into the brave new world of the 1920s, which was expressed in the progressive modernism of the Second Viennese School, the Secessionists and Freudian psychoanalysis.听 Imogen Stubbs joins Anton Lesser in reading poetry on related themes by authors connected to Zweig鈥檚 Viennese literary circles.听


Zweig鈥檚 idea of the world of security is echoed in Franz Werfel鈥檚 appeal to the universality of man in his poem, To the Reader, and Rainer Maria Rilke鈥檚 Liebeslied (Love Song).听 This 鈥榞em眉tlich鈥� picture of old Vienna is also captured in the legendary zither playing of Anton Karas, at the beginning of the programme, followed by Godowsky鈥檚 Alt Wien, Strauss鈥� Blue Danube in a version for music box and Fritz Kreisler playing his own Liebesleid.


The endless, unchallenging school days of Zweig鈥檚 youth lead to Christian Morgenstern鈥檚 The Werewolf accompanied by Zemlinsky鈥檚 youthful 1st String Quartet.听


Then the atmosphere darkens as Vienna slips unknowingly toward the First World War and to a new sound-world.听 It is the youth who sense what is coming, says Zweig, and Webern鈥檚 Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op.7 accompanies Rilke鈥檚 Herbsttag (Autumn Day) and Nietzsche鈥檚 shockingly bleak poem, Isolated, followed by Schoenberg鈥檚 Piano Piece, Op.19 No.2 arranged for traditional Viennese Schrammel-music.听 The immediate confusing aftermath of the war is captured by Joseph Roth in an extract from his novel, The Emperor鈥檚 Tomb, followed by the beguiling traditional Viennese song of death, Wann I amal stirb, and Lorca鈥檚 Little Viennese Waltz and Jakob van Hoddis鈥� End of the World with Mahler鈥檚 Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen. 听


Zweig talks of the 鈥榲iolent wrench from the established order of the post-war generation鈥� and how they were determined to 鈥榮oar into the future鈥�.听 Lilenron鈥檚 poem The Music鈥檚 Coming is used to express the post-war procession into the new world of sound followed by Schoenberg鈥檚 Suite, Op.25 and the intoxicating hedonism of Rilke鈥檚 Spanish Dancer and The Dance of the Seven Veils from Richard Strauss鈥檚 Salome.

Elizabeth Arno (producer)

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  • New Year's Day 2017 17:30
    成人快手 Radio 3

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