Composer

Vienna, early twentieth century. Under pressure from industrialization, the rise of psychoanalysis and growing social tensions, familiar world views are losing their footing and the refined styles of the fin de siècle their lustre. In music, literature and the visual arts, the boundaries of expression are being radically pushed back. Composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alexander von Zemlinsky each sought, in their own way, a new sound idiom, rooted in late Romanticism but unmistakably turned towards the future. During this concert, Alain Altinoglu will showcase three of their masterpieces, all written at this turning point in European cultural history.

EPSG:4326

Vienna

BOZAR

Vienna fostered the development of two extraordinary schools of composers. This first concert of the Nash Ensemble’s series Beethoven Re-Sounded follows the first wave of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. They were to take music to the brink of Romanticism and lay the foundations for Schoenberg and his colleagues to stretch that Romanticism to breaking point.

Nash Ensemble; Harriet Walter narrator

Wigmore Hall

Apart from its vivid, romantic melodies, what makes Felix Mendelssohn’s Overture to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” a remarkable work is the composer was just 17 and a half years old when he wrote it, making it the most youthful work in the orchestral repertoire that’s regularly heard today. Arnold Schoenberg and Ludwig van Beethoven, conversely, both were 32 and at turning points in their development when they made their contributions to this program. Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1 for just 15 musicians not only was his first effort for chamber orchestra, it also came at a pivotal stage in his transition from late-Romantic to atonal music. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 – bold and energetic with touches of humor – was one of his final pieces in a purely classical style. Though the optimistic and innovative work has hints of Haydn and Mozart, it also foreshadows the Beethoven yet to come.

Mendelssohn & Beethoven’s 2nd Symphony

Musical Instrument Museum

Music from Salem brings together musicians of international reputation to prepare and perform chamber music in the peace and beauty of rural Washington County, New York, and environs. Chamber music is classical music written for a small group of performers, and includes a range of styles, from the 18th century to today. Music from Salem also leads educational workshops and conducts violin, viola, and cello seminars for emerging young artists.

Music From Salem August Summer Concert

Hubbard Hall - Center for the Arts and Education

The BoSy as guests at the Weilburg Castle Concerts

Weilburg Castle Concerts

The new chief conductor of the MDR Radio Choir charts musical paths through European landscapes in this nocturnal performance. The journey takes us from the cold north to the warm south, through centuries of music history, and across genres and styles. An exciting and colorful concert, with echoes from Josep Vila i Casañas's Catalan homeland.

Reise durch Europa

St. Peter's Church

Since 2016, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has hosted an ”Orchestra Academy”. The international RSPO Orchestra Academy is a one-year, advanced academic programme for young musicians. Under the guidance of the section leaders from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Piteå School of Music, the musicians receive intensive training individually, in chamber music, and orchestral playing.

Concert with the RSPO Orchestra Academy

Stockholm Concert Hall

 Only Stephen Hough could shape a concert like this. We begin with Klavierstücke – literally, ‘Piano Pieces’ – from two romantic giants, Schubert and Brahms, and two towering 20th-century composers, Schoenberg and Stockhausen. From Beethoven’s majestic ‘Waldstein’ Sonata, Robert Schumann’s vivid suite transports us to the heart of carnival. And we end – where else? – on the streets of Edwardian London, with Hough’s own bravura arrangements of songs from Mary Poppins.

Sir Stephen Hough

The Bridgewater Hall

Distinguished pianist Inna Faliks joins the Sunday Morning Music / Santa Monica series with a dynamic program of beloved classics and a world premiere, and a unique interactive element as the second half of the program will be determined by audience vote!

Inna Faliks

The Broad Stage

Even "birdsong and an orange sunrise" can be found in his "Siegfried Idyll," explained Richard Wagner. The work for chamber orchestra was a birthday surprise for his wife Cosima and was first performed in 1870 in the stairwell of their home in Tribschen near Lucerne. The title alludes to their son Siegfried, but Wagner primarily quotes from the musical drama of the same name in his four-part opera "The Ring of the Nibelung."

Day And Night

Zeughaus Neuss

The story of Pelléas and Melisande is one of literature's greatest love stories, along with Romeo and Juliet and Tristan and Isolde .

Luisi & Pelléas and Mélisande

DR Koncerthuset

"It'll be a really fun show with some of the most insanely talented musicians playing some of the best music ever written... All you have to know is - do you like a good tune? Because we're going to be playing a ton of those." - Chris Addison

Chris Addison’s Incomplete Guide to Chamber Music

Cast

Pianist Seong-Jin Cho will make his Spivey Hall debut in 2025. Winner of the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition, Cho has matured into an artist of great depth whose performances are a masterclass in musicality, where every note carries a sense of thoughtfulness, passion, and devotion to the music. Now established worldwide as one of the leading pianists of his generation and the most distinctive artists on the current music scene, Cho’s artistry resonates deeply with audiences, drawing them into an immersive experience that reflects both his virtuosity and his profound musical insight.

Seong-Jin Cho

Clayton State University

Don’t miss this rare chance to witness the extraordinary artistry of Seong-Jin Cho, one of the most celebrated pianists of his generation. Acclaimed for his poetic touch, virtuosic brilliance, and profound musical insight, the 30-year-old has graced the world’s most prestigious halls since winning First Prize at the 2015 Chopin International Competition.

Seong-Jin Cho in Recital

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

Between Baroque and Modern: Purcell and Schoenberg reveal two fates, caught between suffering and life, yearning and searching. Until the question remains: How much pain can love endure?

Dido and Aeneas / Expectation

Theater Bremen

Beethoven wrote sixteen string quartets, composed in three distinct phases over the course of his life. Each phase marked a remarkable leap forward in the art of the string quartet. One of the most celebrated of these is the multifaceted and profound Opus 130, from his late period – a work filled with beloved melodies, striking harmonies and passionate outbursts. It is performed here by the French ensemble Quatuor Diotima, who take on this truly grand and monumental quartet.

Quatuor Diotima

Guest conductor Paolo Bortolameolli leads the Omaha Symphony through a powerful program of Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Schoenberg. From the intensity of Egmont Overture to the fiery virtuosity of Cello Concerto No. 1 and the haunting beauty of Verklärte Nacht, this concert is a journey through passion and depth.

Ledwon Plays Shostakovich

Joslyn Art Museum

San Carlo Theatre

No emotion is more universal, or more difficult to define, than love. From longing and devotion to betrayal, forgiveness, and renewed commitment, Songs About Love explores the many facets and stages of this complex emotion.

Songs About Love

Pasadena Conservatory of Music

Sarasota Orchestra Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero makes his Chamber Soirée debut, leading three landmark works. Stravinsky’s Danses concertantes is a delight tinged with Stravinsky’s trademark spicy interpretation. Wagner composed his highly romantic Siegfried Idyll as a birthday gift for his wife, hiring a small ensemble to perform it on the staircase outside her bedroom. Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1 was a pivotal work, bridging the gap between 19th-century romanticism and 20th-century modernism.

Miniature Masterworks

Sarasota Orchestra

Small ensembles of Minnesota Orchestra musicians perform chamber music on the Orchestra Hall stage. 

Beethoven, Fuchs and Schoenberg

Orchestra Hall

At the peak of his prolificacy, Richard Strauss composed his Alpine symphony. This tone poem, which explores the individual stages of a hike, is based on memories from his childhood in Munich's nearby mountains. Using a huge orchestra, Strauss depicts both the forces of nature and the human experience of this nature. The progression from sunrise to sunset is also a metaphor for a human life. In his early work Verklärte Nacht, based on a poem by Richard Dehmel, Arnold Schönberg tells the story of a woman who confesses to her lover that she expects such a human life.

Strauss – Schön­berg

Meistersingerhalle

Among them, parallel trajectories echo each other with poignant force. Korngold and Schoenberg, two major figures in Viennese music, had to flee Nazism. The former found refuge in Hollywood where he revolutionized film music; the latter reconstructed his musical language in the United States. Their works bear the scars of this uprooting, between nostalgia and audacity. Pablo Casals and Roberto Gerhard, Spanish exiles, embody resistance through music. Casals, an opponent of Franco, transformed El cant dels ocells into a hymn of freedom. Gerhard, a disciple of Schoenberg, blended avant-garde and Catalan folklore in a unique style, shaped by his exile in England. Arvo Pärt, Olga Podgaiskaya, and Samir Odeh-Tamimi extend this reflection on wandering and creation. Pärt, forced to leave Soviet Estonia, found refuge in timeless music. Podgaiskaya and Odeh-Tamimi, heirs to these journeys, in turn question boundaries and shifting identities. An evening resonating with the echoes of a torn 20th century and the persistence of a beauty born of absence. A world concert where each note echoes a lost land, but also the hope of a new beginning.

Exiles #2

Opéra Comédie

Even today, many in the music world shrug their shoulders at the mention of Arnold Schoenberg's name. Schoenberg's music is often considered overly intellectual and difficult to access. While that may perhaps be true of his revolutionary "twelve-tone music," his late Romantic works are the exact opposite: powerfully sonorous, emotional, and captivating. The symphonic poem "Pelleas and Melisande," for example, tells the story of two unhappily married couples who, because of their complicated pasts, cannot be reunited. The music traverses the entire emotional spectrum of its main characters—from the tenderest strains of love to furious jealousy to the most profound world-weariness.

Munich Philharmonic / Lahav Shani

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

The staggeringly talented Augustin Hadelich sets his sights on Mendelssohn’s treasured Violin Concerto, seizing our attention from the iconic introduction all the way through its breathless finale. Conductor Antonello Manacorda also leads Schoenberg’s hyper-romantic Second Chamber Symphony, which took 33 years to be completed, and Schubert’s Eighth Symphony, which famously never was ... though that hasn’t kept the beloved “Unfinished” from its celebrated place in the repertoire.

Hadelich Plays Mendelssohn

Severance Music Center

One of the most distinctive artists and polymaths of his generation, Sir Stephen Hough combines a distinguished career as a pianist with those of a composer and writer. The first classical performer to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, Hough is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance from Northwestern University, the Royal Philharmonic Instrumentalist Award, and first prize at the Naumburg Competition. In 2014, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Hough has performed with most of the major European, Asian, and American orchestras and regularly plays recitals in major halls, concert series, and festivals around the world. His catalogue of over sixty albums has garnered prizes such as the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, several Grammy nominations, and eight Gramophone awards, including the “Gold Disc” Award, which named his complete Saint-Saëns Piano Concertos as the best recording of the past thirty years. As a composer, Hough has written commissions for institutions such as the Cliburn, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Wigmore Hall. Hough holds the International Chair of Piano Studies at Manchester’s Royal Northern College and is a faculty member at the Juilliard School.

Stephen Hough, piano

Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall

Debussy Mozart Schoenberg

Museum Ludwig

Gasteig HP8

Prepare to be captivated by the extraordinary talent of internationally acclaimed pianist Seong-Jin Cho. Celebrated for his profound artistry and technical mastery, Cho brings a rare depth of emotion and brilliance to every note.

Seong-Jin Cho, piano

Segerstrom Center for the Arts

A favorite of LA Phil and worldwide audiences, Korean star pianist Seong-Jin Cho is back again with a colorful program of pieces that span nearly 200 years.

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Merz Trio returns with another powerful program. Sandwiched between Beethoven’s Piano Trio (a conversation of tension and dark lyricism) and Dvořák’s Piano Trio (an emotionally rich venture of intense inner conflict) we find  the sweet center: Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (“Transfigured Night”), a  journey of tonal richness from D minor to D major, reviving harmonic language reminiscent of both Wagner and Brahms.

Merz Trio

Rice University

Join eleven of the world’s leading musicians for an evening of achingly beautiful Romantic masterpieces.

Schubert’s sublime String Quintet in C – with its famous haunting Adagio – showcases the composer at his most inspired, while Strauss’ gorgeous Sextet from Capriccio is a love letter to music itself. His final opera follows a composer and a poet each vying for the love of a Countess, with the opening sextet imagined as a work written by the composer Flamand for his beloved.

Transfigured Night

Cadogan Hall 

The Barenboim-Said Academy opened in 2015 as a tangible extension of the spirit and mission of the WestEastern Divan Orchestra. Named after the orchestra's founders and leading figures, the Barenboim-Said Academy is dedicated to training a new generation of musicians.

Barenboim-Said Academy

Blaibach Concert Hall

In March 1913, Arnold Schönberg conducted a musical program at the Vienna Musikverein, which was later called the “scandal concert.” The program included his Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9, a wall-breaker in the prevailing musical order. In addition, Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlied and Alban Berg’s songs to poems written on landscape postcards by the Bohemian poet Peter Altenberg were heard. A general uproar broke out during the Altenberg songs, and supporters and opponents of the modernists clashed.

Scandal concert

Espoo Cultural Centre

Beethoven's piano concertos and symphonies belong to the core of orchestral repertoire but it's some time since we've heard his 2nd piano concerto, in which echoes of Mozart can be heard. Schubert composed his first six symphonies before his 20th birthday, although during his lifetime they were only performed in private circles. His 2nd symphony was probably performed for the first time in 1877. While Brahms found them interesting Dvořák was very taken with their melodies, harmonic progressions and the exquisite detail in Schubert's orchestration.

3rd Sunday & Monday Symphonic Concerts

Alte Oper

It’s not often that classically trained musicians are encouraged to ‘break away’ from the notation and improvise, but Jessie Montgomery’s piece Break Away asks them to do just that.

Philharmonia Chamber Players: Transfigured Night

Southbank Centre

This free 45-minute concert showcases the skills of six Philharmonia string players.  

It’s not often that classically trained musicians are encouraged to ‘break away’ from the notation and improvise, but Jessie Montgomery’s piece Break Away asks them to do just that. She writes phrases that can be repeated, riffed on, overlap and interrupt one another, and her instructions to the players include the crucial words ‘Have fun!’.  

The passionate emotions of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht make it perhaps his most popular work. Composed in 1902 in a lush, late-Romantic style, it traces a story from a contemporary poem. A woman confesses to her lover that she is pregnant with another man’s child. Her fear and despair give way to joy as he promises that their love for each other will make the child his, and the ‘high, bright night’ itself is transformed.  

If you want to do justice to the broad spectrum of Jonathan Stockhammer's musical work and his cross-genre curiosity, you have to leave the usual pigeonholes and classifications behind. Born in Los Angeles, the conductor who consistently pushes musicals limits devotes himself to the classical and contemporary repertoire with the same passion. This is the driving force behind his work: to understand and appreciate music in its universality. He loves opera, ballet and modern dance theatre, experimental premieres and unconventional concert formats that break down encrusted structures in favour of new listening experiences. Thanks to his astonishing talent for explaining music and understanding the audience not only as a resonating space but as a dialogue partner, he makes music newly understandable, newly experienceable.

Portrait concert by Capell-Compositrice Unsuk Chin

Festspielhaus Hellerau

Our resident ensemble of Princeton University performance faculty presents, guest artists, and talented students a Sunday-afternoon program of mixed chamber works.

Richardson Chamber Players

Richardson Auditorium

This program explores a line of development of Viennese musical style: from Mozart’s overture to one of his most beloved comic operas, to Brahms’s monumental First Piano Concerto played here by Kirill Gerstein, to an early work by Schoenberg full of lush harmonies and indebted to Brahms’s expressive Romanticism. Principal Guest Conductor Tabita Berglund leads the orchestra.

Mozart & Brahms

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Second Symphony Concert

Staatstheater Hannover

Two masterpieces that stand out from their time—the expression of two composers who used conventions as a springboard into the unknown, thus challenging contemporary audiences: Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 from the Razumovsky Trilogy, allows classical form to vibrate under the pressure of inner necessity: the ominously concentrated unison at the beginning, harmonic shifts with eruptive potential, a movement dramaturgy of symphonic breath, a sonically contemplative Molto Adagio with a "cosmic" perspective—they mark nothing less than a renegotiation of the concept of genre on the threshold of Romanticism.

Chamber Concert No. 2

Town Hall Hall

Bursting with musical color and raw emotion, the first half of this program takes audiences on an immersive European adventure. The charming orchestration of Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso is infused with the sounds of Spain while the spirited Bohemian melodies of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto paint a vibrant picture of the Czech countryside. The concert culminates in a moody tone poem by Schoenberg that depicts a tragic tale of forbidden love.

Passion and Poetry: An Afternoon of Musical Storytelling

Colburn School

The Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra marks its 100th anniversary with one of the orchestra's great international successes, namely the masterpiece Music of the Spheres , which they have previously performed at The BBC Proms, among other places.

Luisi & the Music of the Spheres

MSM Faculty Recital: Lucy Shelton, soprano

Manhattan School of Music

Tired of the ignorance and conservative mindset of establishment types, critics and celebrity musicians of the time, Schoenberg dreamed of a new counter-culture.

Paraorchestra: Dance Like Nobody's Watching

Slip into an intimate soirée of musical storytelling, where countertenor John Holiday’s inimitable voice weaves a tapestry of familiar narratives and timeless elegance. From the cherished Great American Songbook to the reflective melodies of early 20th-century repertoire, this program is a sincere ode to the themes that bind us together: love, loss, hope, and home.

Current: Reflections In Song

The Olive

“As a young man I participated in an ensemble called the Gramercy Chamber Ensemble. It was a rather unwieldy group that had a full complement of strings, winds, brass, percussion, singers, and a pianist. We chose repertoire by consensus. When one of the members mentioned a work called Pierrot lunaire there were puzzled faces all around. When he described an orchestration consisting of flute-piccolo, violin-viola, clarinet-bass clarinet (each pair of these instruments played by one person), cello, piano, and a singer who did not really sing but performed a hybrid of singing and speaking on pitch, we were really perplexed.

Gilbert Kalish at 90: A Celebration

Menlo School Campus

Arnold Schoenberg’s chamber melodrama Pierrot lunaire experienced a tumultuous premiere on its way to becoming a twentieth-century classic. Ara Guzelimian returns to recount the origins of seventeenth-century commedia dell’arte and its famous character Pierrot, the sad clown. From there, he tells the story of the legendary first performance of Schoenberg’s work as well as the highly charged reaction of the Berlin audience. With festival musicians demonstrating some of the work’s highlights, he will explore the expressive power of Schoenberg’s music in performance.

Moonstruck: The Amazing Story of Schoenberg’s “Pierrot lunaire”

Charm and innovation collide in Brahms’ String Sextet No.2. The grand orchestral experience is distilled to a single ground-breaking movement in Schoenberg’s boundary-pushing First Chamber Symphony. A suite of dramatic and vivid string quartets showcases the creative talents of Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin.

Chamber Series: Rapture

Government House, Western Australia

Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg, bound by mutual admiration and great respect for one another, decisively shaped the music of the early 20th century and, with their innovative ideas, built a bridge between Romanticism and modernism. This evening, featuring works by both composers, unfolds a dialogue between two significant artistic visions that offer different answers to existential and personal questions while complementing each other.

One Morning Turns into an Eternity

Felsenreitschule

One Morning Turns into an Eternity Premiere

Auckland Philharmonia principal musicians take centre stage for Mozart’s amiable concerto for a group of star wind players.

Nightscapes

Auckland Town Hall

Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schönberg met for the first time in Vienna in 1903. A friendly friendship immediately developed. These pioneers of modernism meet again in the program of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. The Korean Unsuk Chin will perform a concert suite from her successful opera "Alice in Wonderland."

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin | Cornelius Meister

Join the ISO with Music Director Jun Märkl and the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir as we dare to dream of peace. Beethoven’s 9th Symphony stands as humanity’s greatest monument to universal love. The Indianapolis Symphonic Choir opens this program with Schoenberg’s contemplative plea for world harmony, Peace on Earth. Experience the joy of fellowship with our season finale. NOTE: This performance is performed without an intermission.

Peace On Earth: Beethoven's 9th

Hilbert Circle Theatre

For decades, Mitsuko Uchida has been one of the leading international piano performers. Time and again, the »Grande Dame of subtle notes«, as BR-Klassik once described the musician, has been celebrated for her Schubert interpretations. Therefore, her recital at the Kulturpalast, which has proven itself a commendable location for top pianists appearing at the Musikfestspiele (such as Hélène Grimaud and Igor Levit last year), also features this composer.

Piano Recital Mitsuko Uchida

Kulturpalast Dresden

The resident quartet of our award-winning HeartStrings® program, the Rhapsodie Quartet includes our Co-Concertmaster Suzanne Beia, Principal Violist Christopher Dozoryst, Principal Cellist Karl Lavine, and violinist Laura Burns. United in mission, the members of the quartet create a fusion of talent, passion, and heart in their performances. This program includes an expanded ensemble with special guests Katrin Talbot, viola, and Mark Bridges, cello. Join us in Overture Center’s Promenade Hall — it’s FREE and open to the public!

Rhapsodie Quartet Recital

Overture Center for the Arts

A place for creation. That is the Leipzig Ballet under the new direction of Rémy Fichet. The double evening "Humans" creates space for creativity and abstract narratives in the art form...

Humans

Oper Leipzig

3rd Metropol Concert

Mannheimer Rosengarten

String players of the Concertgebouw Orchestra perform Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night and Richard Strauss’ Metamorphosen.

Close-up: Metamorphosen

The Concertgebouw

Apparently familiar, in an unusual form – that is the motto of the 7th Chamber Concert. It was put together by violinist Alissa Margulis, who has a close relationship with the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra and is co-curating the “Eigenzeit” festival this season. Together with her siblings, she plays classics of literature, which she dresses up in unusual sounds in different ensembles, thus enabling new listening experiences in actually familiar works. Johann Sebastian Bach's famous “Chaconne”, for example, a lonely high point of literature for solo violin, but here with the piano part supplemented by Robert Schumann. Or Arnold Schönberg's romantic-expressive “Verklärte Nacht” – here in Eduard Steuermann's version for piano trio instead of the original version for string sextet. Camille Saint-Saëns' diabolical “Danse macabre” was originally intended for orchestra, but now sounds on the piano solo. Modest Mussorgsky composed the original version of his famous “Pictures at an Exhibition” for this purpose; however, they became even more popular in the brilliant orchestration of Maurice Ravel. The Margulis Trio is now exploring the tone-painting cycle using chamber music techniques.

Margulis Trio

Philharmonie Mercatorhalle

Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in historic Royce Hall for the first Philharmonia performance of Spring 2025. Featuring the first performance of Eric Zeisl's Moon Portraits since 1936, Paul Schoenfield's piano concerto Four Parables, and David Schiff's riveting jazz violin concerto 4 Sisters, this will surely be an afternoon you will not want to miss.

UCLA Philharmonia

University of California, Los Angeles

Experience the evocative power of music with "Echoes of Time," a captivating performance by the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus. Under the masterful direction of conductor Sameer Patel, this concert promises to be a profound auditory journey, exploring the intricate interplay between past and present through a carefully curated selection of compositions. The La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, renowned for their artistic excellence and innovative programming, will bring to life a repertoire that resonates with timeless themes and contemporary relevance. Set in the acoustically rich Mandeville Auditorium, the performance will envelop the audience in a sonic tapestry that highlights the ensemble's dynamic range and expressive depth. "Echoes of Time" is an opportunity to witness the convergence of tradition and modernity, as the musicians interpret works that reflect the enduring human spirit and its myriad expressions through time.

Echoes of Time

University of California San Diego

MSM Chamber Music Festival: MSM Artists in Residence: American String Quartet

Remarkable leaps and bounds for the chamber music playing that our orchestra members love: Borodin was actually a full-time chemist and physician, but his passion for music constantly rekindled, including from 1859 in Heidelberg – where he composed his romantic string sextet in D minor. Some time later, he returned to Russia and the work was lost. It did not turn up for almost 100 years until it was finally discovered in an antiquarian bookshop. And it may still be missing something, as it consists of just two movements – one of which seems to shimmer like Mendelssohn’s »Midsummer Night’s Dream« and the other is laced with folk songs from Borodin's homeland. Dvořák’s sextet, premiered in 1879, also bubbles along folkloristically, which has to do with its chronological proximity to his famous »Slavonic Dances« and emphasises his image as a »Bohemian musician«. Although this was only one aspect of his multifaceted personality, Dvořák loved the cheerful and colourful environment around him, where people liked to celebrate festivals. His work quickly became one of the classics of the genre – and also inspired Schönberg to write his string sextet »Verklärte Nacht« in 1899. It is based on a poem by Richard Dehmel, saying: »There is a glow around everything, you drift with me across a cold sea, but a warmth of your own flickers from you into me, from me into you.« Schönberg found a poetic voice here that reflected his aesthetic stance – and an impressive love story that defied the moral standards of the time. He created a late romantic musical world for this – and the composition is one of his most popular pieces of chamber music today.

Chamber concert: String sextet

Spiegelsaal Der Harmonie

The Wiener Symphoniker have premiered various works by Arnold Schoenberg, including his symphonic poem "Pelleas and Melisande". A narrative love story after Maurice Maeterlinck in dramatic sounds, which Schönberg composed without knowledge of Debussy's opera and after his "Transfigured Night". In the Wiener Symphoniker's 125th anniversary season, it will now be conducted by Israeli conductor Lahav Shani. Also on the programme is Ludwig van Beethoven's 2nd Piano Concerto (op. 19), which is still oriented towards Viennese Classicism, but foreshadows the later Beethoven. The soloist is Argentinian pianist legend Martha Argerich.

Shani, Argerich · Beethoven, Schönberg

Vienna Music Society

Transfigurations

St. Paul's Episcopal Church Brookline

Hamilton Hall

Portrait Concert Clara Iannotta

Arnold Schönberg Center

Florian Illies had his big breakthrough as a chronicler of the German sensibility with his first novel, Generation Golf . Most recently, his feature compilations 1913 and Love in Times of Hate have delighted audiences. These works bring the eras shortly before the world wars to life. Most recently, the trained art historian Illies turned far back into German Romanticism and, in his novel Magic of Silence, based on the life of the painter Caspar David Friedrich, traced an era of German history that bears the seeds of modernity. He presents Friedrich as a painter of God-fearing inwardness on the edge of the abyss of abstraction. The symphony concert Sound of Silence provides the soundtrack and shows that Friedrich was not the only one to take this artistic path.

Symphony Concert: Sound of Silence

Komische Oper Berlin @Schillertheater

The Concertgebouw Orchestra performs Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 on tour in Vienna and Hamburg. Klaus Mäkelä also conducts Verklärte Nacht by Arnold Schönberg, who was born 150 years ago.

On tour: Klaus Mäkelä conducts Mahler 

The story of the moonstruck character of Pierrot in Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire elicited a set of paintings by artist Kirsty Matheson, commissioned for Spitalfields Festival and the Hebrides Ensemble, and showcased through digital projections this evening.

Hear Schoenberg’s mesmerising, expressionistic work in this concert, alongside music by Scottish-Greek composer Electra Perivolaris that in turn draws its inspiration from Kirsty Matheson’s artwork.

Chamber Spotlight: Moonlit Dreams

Royal College of Music

The 8th Philharmonic Concert is all about Francophile! With the Piano Concerto in G major and the famous Boléro by Maurice Ravel, the Bremen Philharmonic pays homage to the sonic sophistication of French origin. And there is a very specific reason for this: this year we are commemorating the 150th birthday of the French sound magician, who knew like no other how to coax subtle nuances and shades out of the orchestra. With the Piano Concerto, Ravel created a virtuoso piece par excellence, and with the Boléro, a catchy tune that creates an overwhelming orgy of sound from a simple musical nucleus. And Schoenberg? Admittedly, he wasn't French, but in his lavishly scored suite he devotes himself to one of the most famous French lovers of all: Pelléas and Mélisande. Contemporaries would have liked to declare the composer mad for his music, which was almost bursting with exuberant expressiveness. Fortunately, this did not happen – on the contrary: Even then, many recognized Schönberg’s genius and appreciated the courage with which he broke new musical ground.

Happy anniversary, Monsieur Ravel!

Die Glocke

“To listen to Aimard in action is to feel the gears of a composition mesh in new ways,” writes the San Francisco Chronicle. In this thrilling meeting of artistic sensibilities, renowned pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard gives audiences powerful new insight into the distinctive genius of his late teacher and collaborator, Pierre Boulez. “He likes to put interpreters at the border of what’s possible and what is not. If you like that, it’s incredibly exciting,” Aimard says of the influential composer. Piano works by Boulez are featured alongside carefully selected pieces by Bartók, Ravel, and Schoenberg in this unique matinee recital.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Piano

Carnegie Hall

Gurre-lieder

Erkel Theater

The rugged, windswept beauty of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto is a perfect showcase for Christian Tetzlaff, whose “fiery and compelling” 2022 CSO performance was named one of the year’s 10 best by Chicago Classical Review. Schoenberg’s Pelleas and Melisande is a lush, quintessentially romantic orchestral portrait of Maeterlinck’s mysterious, symbolist play, while Wagner’s prelude delivers a thrilling opener.

Composer

Arnold Schönberg

Events

Upcoming events

19 - 20 Nov, 2026

Symphonic Sunrise · Arktisk Filharmoni

Nov 21, 2026

3rd Philharmonic Concert – Erzgebirgische Philharmonie Aue · Kulturhaus Aue

Nov 27, 2026

Exiles #3 · Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier

Dec 6, 2026

Piano Recital with Mitsuko Uchida · Berliner Philharmoniker

Dec 11, 2026

Erwartung · La Monnaie / De Munt

Past events

24 - 25 Oct, 2026

Vienna · La Monnaie / De Munt

Oct 17, 2026

Nash Ensemble; Harriet Walter narrator · Wigmore Hall

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