Schreker - Nachtstück from Der ferne Klang

I've been working through a large collection of classical music CDs I was given a couple of summers ago, but only started deeply exploring lately.

Last week, I first listened to selected works of Franz Schreker, an Austrian composer best known for his operatic works. Der ferne Klang (Ger: 'The Distant Sound) is an opera he began drafting in 1901 and completed the libretto for in 1903. He reportedly abandoned the project for several years before finishing the orchestral score six years later in 1910 due to criticism from his composition instructor [1].

In general, I don't really like listening to opera — though I know this closes off a truckload of writing from the pre-Classical era and so many Baroque, Classical, and Romantic works(!) — but this orchestral-only setting of the Nachtstück (Ger: 'Night Song') from Der ferne Klang is breathtaking.

Since the score for this piece is so much longer than the other pieces I have analyzed, and leaves out the vocal parts from the original opera, I'll leave the scorereading from the score to you. The score for the Nachtstück starts at Ein wenig langsamer on page 33 of the Act III full score (1912 Universal Edition [Plate U.E. 3097], Vienna) and page 243 of the complete (condensed) vocal score (2004 Universal Edition [Plate U.E. 32926], Vienna) from IMSLP.org.

In both versions of the score, the music stops following the recorded piece a few times. The parts of the recording that are captured in the score are as follows (with score rehearsal numbers in boldface):

Beginning (five bars before 26) up to 44 (0:00-10:00)
Rejoins at 44 and leaves just before 48 (12:57-15:15)

Hope you enjoy listening to this piece and leave your thoughts below!

[1] Wikipedia - Der ferne Klang