Website: https://adamschoenberg.com
1. Orange
2. Yellow
3. Red
4. Wine
Besetzung: Kammerorchester (Klavier, Celesta, Perkussion, Streicher)
Bemerkung: Luke Howard (2006): After experiencing a “visceral reaction” to a group of paintings at MOMA by the Abstract Expressionist artist Mark Rothko, Schoenberg decided to make Rothko’s art the “muse” for this piece. Although played without a break, it is in four distinct movements, each devoted to a specific Rothko painting and named after the principal color used in the painting: https://adamschoenberg.com/works/finding-rothko. Gemäß den Angaben des Komponisten (mail an Verf. vom 20. 02. 2026) beziehen sich die einzelnen Sätze auf folgende Bilder von Mark Rothko: 1. (Orange): Untitled (Violet, Black, Orange, Yellow on White and Red); 2. (Yellow): No. 5/No. 22; 3. (Red): No. 301 (Reds and Violet over Red/Red and Blue over Red); 4. (Wine): No. 9 (White and Black on Wine)
Mark Rothko: No. 301 (Reds and Violet over Red/Red and Blue over Red)
Mark Rothko: Untitled (Violet, Black, Orange, Yellow on White and Red)
1. Intro
2. Three Pierrots
3. Repetition
4. Olive Orchard
5. Kandinsky
6. Calder’s World
7. Miró
8. Interlude
9. Cliffs of Moher
10. Pigeons in Flight
Besetzung: Orchester
Bemerkung: Adam Schoenberg (2012): In November of 2011, I received a commission from the Kansas City Symphony and the Nelson-Atkins Museum to write a 21st-century Pictures at an Exhibition.[ ...] Unlike Modest Mussorgsky, who set all of his movements to the work of Viktor Hartmann, my piece brings eight seemingly disparate works of art to musical life. In honor of Mussorgsky and his original work (for solo piano), four of the ten movements were conceived in the form of piano etudes and later orchestrated. My main objective was to create an architectural structure that connected each movement to the next while creating an overall arc for the entire piece [....] I used this series as a way of pushing myself both intellectually and emotionally as a composer. I felt inspired and liberated as I gave myself permission to explore new compositional terrain. The outcome is Picture Studies, a 26-minute work for orchestra based on four paintings, three photographs, and one sculpture. https://adamschoenberg.com/works/picture-studies-2012
This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Monika Fink-Naumann
monika.fink@uibk.ac.at
Institut für Musikwissenschaft / Department of Musicology
Universität Innsbruck / University of Innsbruck
Haus der Musik
Universitätsstraße 1
A - 6020 Innsbruck