Pictures and Tales

Full title Pictures and Tales, six piano pieces op. 2 / Bilder und Geschichten, sechs Klavierstücke op. 2
Date composed 1909
Details 1. Es war einmal / Once upon a Time
2. Schneewittchen und die sieben Zwerge / Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
3. Storch, Storch, Steiner / Stork, Stork Clatter
4. Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf / Sleep, Baby, Sleep
5. Dornröschens Grab / At the Sleeping Beauty's Grave
6. Im Mondenschein / Elfins Dance in the Moonlight

Composition completed on 25 November 1909; Weigl subsequently arranged the work both for piano four hands and for chamber orchestra (see Pictures and Tales Suite).
Dedication: Für Mitzi; according to information provided by the composer on the occasion of a 1945 Brooklyn Museum performance of the version for piano four hands, “[T]he six pieces contained in this opus were dedicated to a four-year-old child.”
Performance duration: ca. 13 min.
Manuscript sources NYPL JOB 73-158, holograph working score (3 folded folios), without a title page and with composer's note at end: KW. / 25./XI. 1909; this score includes a seventh movement, numbered and titled VII. Marsch der Zinnsoldaten (March of the Tin Soldiers). See also NYPL JPB 99-2, copyist's [?] score (41 pages); and NYPL JPB 99-7 no. 79, copy of the published Universal Edition score.
Publication details Universal Edition, 1910: U.E. 2796; reissued 1937.
Availabiity Published score available from ACA and KWF.
Recordings Joseph Banowetz, piano (CD: Naxos, The Complete Piano Works of Karl Weigl, 2012).
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Pictures and Tales, six piano pieces op. 2 / Bilder und Geschichten, sechs Klavierstücke op. 2
Joseph Banowetz

Performances (click icon to expand or collapse list)
11 December 1910*** Vienna, Der Merker 2nd season concert: Karl Weigl, piano. Also on program: works by Hermann Graener; Robert Konta; Alexander Zemlinsky; Erich Wolfgang Korngold; Alma Maria Mahler.
17 May 1935** Stockholm, K. Musikaliska Akademien: Willi Klasen, piano. Also on program: works by Schubert; Franz Arbter [sic]; Otto Siegl; Lars Erik Paulsson; Axel Raoul Wachtmeister; Olof Anderberg; Josef Rinaldini; Willy Klasen.
28 April 1939 New York, private musicale, home of Mrs. Frank Bradbeer: Karl Weigl and Vally Weigl, piano (2-piano version).
10 August 1939 Cape Cod Institute of Music, Massachusetts, Dr. Karl Weigl in a program of his own compositions: Karl Weigl and Vally Weigl, piano (2-piano version).
13 November 1939 Newark, New Jersey, Clinton Masonic Temple, Musicale Culture Circle of Divinity: Karl Weigl and Vally Weigl, piano (2-piano version). Also on program: Mozart, unidentified piano sonata; Schrieber [sic], Esterhazy Fantasy; Brahms, Hungarian Waltzes; Dvorak, Slavonic Dances.
17 November 1939 Germantown, Pennsylvania, Germantown Friends School, Principals Reception to the Senior Class: Karl and Vally Weigl, piano (2-piano version). Also on program: works by Mozart; Schubert; Brahms; Richard Strauss.
8 May 1941 New York, private musicale, home of Mrs. Emil Goldmark, 135 Central Park West, Compositions by Karl Weigl: Karl Weigl and Vally Weigl, piano (2-piano version).
29 November 1941 Englewood, New Jersey, Dwight School, Piano Duet Recital by Dr. and Mrs. Karl Weigl (2-piano version). Also on program: Mozart, Piano Duet Sonata in B-flat Major; Beethoven, Piano Duet Sonata in D major; Schumann, Impromptu, Evening Song, Seek and Hiding; Dvorak, Three Legends and Two Slavonic Dances; Brahms, Waltzes.
24 March 1944 Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, Clothier Memorial Auditorium: Karl Weig and Vally Weigl, piano. Also on the program, with Roman Totenberg in the violin works: Weigl, Violin Sonata No. 2; Mozart, Piano Duet Sonata in D Major; Schubert, Phantasy in F Minor; Brahms, Violin Sonata in A Major op. 100; and Dvorak, Three Legends and Slavonic Dance.
24 January 1945** Philadelphia, a Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation concert, Karl Weigl and Vally Weigl, piano.
24 January 1945 Philadelphia, a Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation concert: Karl Weigl and Vally Weigl, piano (4-hand arrangement).
7 April 1945 New York, Brooklyn Museum, Ask The Composer, Outstanding Contemporary Composers and Their Music—Karl Weigl: Pictures and Tales op. 2 for piano duet, with Karl Weigl and Vally Weigl, piano (4-hand arrangement). Also on the program: Five Songs for soprano and piano op. 23, with Sally Cherry Pestcoe, soprano, and Karl Weigl, piano; Adagio from Violin Sonata No. 1 op. 16, “The Singing Bird’s Song Before Night,” with Boris Schwarz, violin, and Karl Weigl, piano; Five Songs for mezzo-soprano and piano, with Alice Howland, soprano, and Karl Weigl, piano; Two Pieces for violoncello and piano op. 33, with James Scholz, cello, and Karl Weigl, piano.
3 July 1964 London: Robert Cuckson, piano.
9 February 1968 New York, Town Hall: Zeinab Naderi, piano. Also on the program, with Naderi and other artists: Weigl, Pictures from Childhood (with Eugene Seaman, flute; Zeinab Naderi, piano); Harold Branch, Piano Sonata and Scherzo; Barbara Kolb, Four Approaches; Eugene Seaman, Andante for flute and piano; Tui St. George Tucker, Jakugo and Lift Up Your Heads; and Harold Seletsky, Impressions.
29 March 1968 New York, Town Hall:. Zelnab Naderi, piano. Also on the program, with other artists: Weigl, Violin Sonata No. 2 (with Isidore Cohen, violin, Harriet Wingreen, piano); Frederick Jacobi, Moods, Prelude, and Toccata; Harold Branch, Piano Sonata and Scherzo; Barbara Kolb, Figments; Eugene Seaman, Andante for flute and piano; Tui St. George Tucker, Jakungo and Luft Up Your Heads; and Harold Seletsky, Impression.
5 August 2008 Ostfriesland, Germany, Musikalischer Sommer Festival: Iwan König and Angela (Hyun-Ju) Yu, piano. Also on program: songs by Debussy, Pierre de Bréville, Alexander Zemlinsky, and Schreker; Karol Rathaus, Suite for violin and piano, op. 27 (1929); Berthold Goldschmidt, Capriccio for violin solo; Egon Wellesz, Suite for violoncello solo; Hans Gál, Piano Trio op. 18.
3 April 2009 Taiwan, First Taipei International Lyricism in 20th Century Music Festival: Pictures and Tales for solo piano, with Iwan König. Also on program: Schoenberg, Verklärte Nacht op. 4 and Four Songs op. 2; Hindemith, Des Todes Tod op. 23a.