Composer

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.

EPSG:4326

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

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

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

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

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

DR Koncerthuset

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

One Morning Turns into an Eternity Premiere

Felsenreitschule

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

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

Museum Ludwig

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

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

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

Close-up: Metamorphosen

The Concertgebouw

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 

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

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.

Tetzlaff Plays Sibelius

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Camerata Pacifica artists are representative of the world’s finest, bringing to our stage their highly individual personalities for dynamic performances of music that span the huge, eclectic range of the chamber music repertoire.

Camerata Pacifica Presents: Morciano, Gershwin, Weill, Debussy, Schoenberg

Brauß was praised by Gramophone Magazine for "the maturity and sophistication of her thoughtful interpretations." She is currently establishing herself as one of the most exciting and versatile musicians of her generation. As a former member of the BBC New Generation Artist Scheme, she continues to perform regularly in recitals, chamber music, and solo concerts in the UK. In 2021, she made her debut at the BBC Proms.

4th Symphony Concert

Staatstheater Darmstadt

Still, Shostakovich, Schoenberg

Benaroya Hall

»Sweet melancholy is the true nature of true love.« This quote by Novalis is an excellent reflection of our relationship with Jonathan Nott: since the turn of the millennium, he held the musical reins together from the podium for 16 years as our Chief Conductor in over 650 always original concerts both in Bamberg and on tour. On his departure, he said somewhat melancholically: »When we all – orchestra and conductor – achieve a result together, then we are influenced by each other. And even if we never see each other again: All the musicians of the Bamberg Symphony  are a part of my life.« Fortunately, he has been returning regularly as a guest ever since – and this year’s programme is the start of a concert series with him over the next few seasons, which will also take us to places that were the centres of the chosen musical period. It once again bears his unmistakably individual and highly dedicated handwriting: After all, the English maestro honed our musical profile for musical modernism particularly intensively and lastingly during his time. Now it’s a concentration on two related works that were premiered together in Vienna 120 years ago – with each of the two composers conducting their own piece: Zemlinsky conducted his orchestral fantasy »The Mermaid« based on the well-known fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. His former student, then brother-in-law and friend Schönberg performed his tone poem »Pelléas et Mélisande«, based on Maeterlinck’s wonderful drama – which Jonathan Nott has long held dear to his heart. There is no doubt, therefore, that he will be a safe guide through these two works, revelling in late Romanticism.

Jonathan Nott

Bamberg Concert Hall

The annual program celebrating Balanchine’s birthday traditionally features a world premiere, in this case the 25th dance from Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor Justin Peck, for which Dan Deacon will be providing a commissioned score. The program opens with Christopher Wheeldon’s From You Within Me, set to Arnold Schoenberg’s early work Verkläkte Nacht, featuring a cast of a dozen dancers and painter Kylie Manning’s atmospheric drops at the front and back of the stage. Balanchine is represented by one of his most strikingly enigmatic works, Variations pour une Porte et un Soupir, a pas de deux for a woman swathed in a huge, billowing skirt, personifying the “door” of the title, and a man as the “sigh,” illustrating the otherworldly Pierre Henry score.

New Combinations

Lincoln Center

Horszowski Trio

Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute

With Gustav Holst’s atmospheric 1916 orchestral suite The Planets, Daniel Harding embarks on a cosmic musical journey through our solar system. Each of the seven planets has its own musical character, from rugged Mars to mystical Neptune. Holst was greatly inspired by Arnold Schoenberg’s Five Orchestral Pieces, which oscillate intriguingly between late Romanticism and Modernism. Completing the programme, Brett Dean’s Komarov’s Fall was commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2006 as a musical “asteroid” to Holst’s Planets.

Daniel Harding conducts Holst’s “Planets”

Berliner Philharmonie

Violist Jonathan Brown, Colburn’s newly appointed professor of chamber music, was a member of the acclaimed Cuarteto Casals for more than two decades. With the quartet, he performed in major concert halls across the globe and amassed a robust library of recordings. For his Colburn debut, Brown pairs Mozart’s charming String Quartet No. 1 with eclectic works by Schoenberg and Steve Reich.

Colburn Chamber Music Society: Jonathan Brown, Viola

When Arnold Schoenberg’s melodrama Pierrot lunaire premiered, not only did he add a new work to the classical canon but also introduced to the world a new special grouping of instruments called the “Pierrot ensemble.” For this Czech Chamber Music Society performance, curator Petr Popelka will be joined by musical friends and colleagues from some of Norway’s best orchestras to present this unique colour combination of woodwinds, strings, and piano.

Czech Chamber Music Society • Marianne Beate Kielland

Rudolfinum

We begin the concert in the 21st century with a "Still Life with Avalanche" - a paradoxical title that fits well with the energetic and unpredictable music of the American composer Mazzoli.

Winter Romance

Southern Danish Conservatory of Music

Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

Telegraph Quartet: New Worlds

The Menil Collection

Internationally recognized for their inspiring performances and luminous sounds, the GRAMMY Award-winning Parker Quartet has distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation. Winners of multiple international competitions, the Parker Quartet is also a recipient of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, and is the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University. Members of the Quartet will also work with SFCM students in various masterclasses during their residency.

Chamber Music Tuesday with Parker Quartet

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Hear one of the world’s great Mahler orchestras perform the First Symphony—a work that the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra performed under Mahler’s own baton in its Dutch premiere. For this performance, the historic orchestra is led by its future chief conductor Klaus Mäkelä, one of the music world’s brightest rising stars. Also featured on the program is Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, a lush and beautiful piece originally scored for string sextet (making it the first tone poem ever written for chamber ensemble). Schoenberg’s string-orchestra arrangement remains one of his most popular creations and an enduring staple of the concert repertoire.

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Like a sunny day in the Czech Republic, full of joy and harmony, Antonín Dvořák's Serenade for Winds opens the evening's concert. The orchestra paints pictures of the simplicity and beauty of the countryside through playful melodies. Schönberg's Verklärte Nacht was inspired by Richard Dehmel's poem of the same name, where the power of love transforms the night into something transfigured. The poem explores complex emotions and themes around love and forgiveness, which is reflected in Schönberg's musical interpretation. These works represent extremes in the evolution of music and come together for a contrasting evening. As a musical bridge between these works, the Adagio from the String Quintet by Bruckner is played - here in a version for string orchestra

Verklärte Nacht

Malmö Concert Hall

“Like wine for our eyes, the moonlight pours over us…”. Filled with longing and wonder, Pierrot gazes at the moon and begins to dream. Part mini-opera, part ravishing sonic fantasy, Pierrot Lunaire is a modern masterpiece that simply has to be experienced live. Tonight it’s performed by Ensemble 360 – the remarkable, Sheffield-based collective whose whole mission is to make music speak. This will be magical.

Ensemble 360: Pierrot Lunaire

Bute Park

The Concertgebouw Orchestra performs Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 on tour in Orlando and New York. Klaus Mäkelä also conducts Transfigured Night by Arnold Schönberg, who was born 150 years ago.

On tour: Klaus Mäkelä conducts Mahler

Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

Brahms and Schoenberg

Ithaca Commons

Organ Concert

Wiener Konzerthaus

Lost, confused, and frightened, Melisande is coerced into marrying the overbearing prince Golaud, and in her marital melancholy, the young bride grows close to her handsome brother-in-law, Pelleas. Golaud’s rage sets the stage for this timeless tale of forbidden love, family jealousy, and regret. Debussy’s luminous orchestrations propel the drama to ecstatic heights, the music a striking contrast to this lean new production by Dutch director Jetske Mijnssen.

Pelleas and Melisande

AT&T Performing Arts Center

Genre-breaking works from the 20th and 21st centuries immerse the listener in interactions between poetry, music, and the human voice. The composers explore the extremes of drama and poetry within the intimate setting of chamber music.

Fall Cabaret: Pierrot Lunaire

Berkeley Hillside Club

Noe Valley Ministry

Creative Partner David Robertson enjoys a dynamic connection with our orchestra (and our audiences), and this program brings a soloist with whom he also shares an undeniable artistic chemistry—his wife and world-renowned pianist Orli Shaham. Listen as she brings Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 to life with extraordinary virtuosity, promising a sojourn into refined beauty and delicate expression.

Orli Shaham Performs Mozart

Salt Palace Convention Center

Conductor Nikolai Malko was born in Ukraine in 1883, was educated at St. Petersburg and worked as both conductor and teacher, but left what had become the Soviet Union in 1929 and did not return. In return, he gained invaluable importance for e.g. The Radio Symphony Orchestra, now the DR Symphony Orchestra, here in Denmark. He helped to build the orchestra and was on the podium when the first Thursday concert was played in 1933. Although he settled in the USA, he was a regular guest conductor of the orchestra and therefore a few years after his death the first international conducting competition was held under his name. It has been held under the auspices of DR since 1965. It is a competition for young conductors who, in addition to money, probably just as importantly win more engagements so that they can perform as they should - on the podium in front of an orchestra.

Malko winner 2024

Alsion

Chamber Concert

Munich Residence

Evangelische Akademie

Arnold Schoenberg was born 150 years ago on 24 September. The Concertgebouw Orchestra performs three highly different works by the Viennese composer under the baton of Ryan Wigglesworth, in a captivating mise en espace by Pierre Audi and with soprano Sara Jakubiak in a starring role.

Arnold Schoenberg 150

The London Sinfonietta opens its 2024/25 season with a portrait of one of the most misunderstood pioneers of the early 20th-century avant-garde.

Schoenberg: Reshaping Tradition

In the first of four concerts directed by Maria Włoszczowska in her new role as Artistic Partner, Rebecca Bottone joins musicians from Royal Northern Sinfonia in Sage Two. You might remember Rebecca from our Viennese New Year’s Day Concert 2023.

The Glasshouse International Centre for Music

Brahms’s only violin concerto – and one of the very greatest examples of this form in the history of music – is here performed by the SDSO and Rafael Payare with the celebrated Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan. Following Beethoven’s lofty example, Brahms wrote a piece that simultaneously makes massive demands upon a top virtuoso soloist, while at the same time having the depth, beauty, scale and orchestral muscularity of a great symphony. Rafael Payare is world-renowned for his interpretations of Brahms’ symphonies, and this performance will surely bring out the most remarkable qualities of his music. Payare is also a passionate champion of the music of Arnold Schoenberg, and serves on the Artistic Honorary Committee of Schönberg 150, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Schoenberg began his long creative life in Vienna in the high romantic age of Brahms, Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler, and ended it in Los Angeles as an American citizen in 1951, at one of the high points of 20th century modernism. Schoenberg’s gorgeously scored and richly melodic tone-poem, based on the tragic love-story of Pelléas et Mélisande, which also inspired great music from Fauré, Debussy and Sibelius, is one of his most beautiful orchestral scores, written in a style somewhere between Brahms and Wagner but with a rich and dark orchestral coloring that is all Schoenberg’s own.

The Romantic Lyricism of Schoenberg and Brahms

Jacobs Music Center

The Sydney Symphony returns to The Joan in Penrith for a brilliant concert featuring three pieces that capture the sensuous depth and drama of night.

Mozart and Poetic Inspirations

Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre

Night time is a charged time, liberated from the routine of daylight duties. Perhaps that’s why composers seem to find life after dark so full of magic and possibility.

City Recital Hall

With a career spanning over four decades, Emanuel Ax has received numerous accolades, including multiple Grammy Awards and international recognition for his exceptional interpretations of classical masterpieces. “Ax is an extremely satisfying pianist; he is at home in a wide variety of music and his pianism is always thoughtful, lyrical, lustrous.” (The Washington Post)


Emanuel Ax, piano

The Royal Conservatory of Music

The divine in music, that is what the young Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovich believes he is looking for in his music. When he now visits the Berwaldhallen and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, it is with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's third violin concerto, in itself proof of godlike musicality. Conductor Kazuki Yamada also leads the orchestra in Arnold Schönberg's emotional Verklärte Nacht and Claude Debussy's musical triptych Images pour Orchestre .

Composer

Arnold Schönberg

Events

Upcoming events

Jan 20, 2026

Merz Trio · Chamber Music Houston

Jan 27, 2026

Seong-Jin Cho · Los Angeles Philharmonic

Jan 28, 2026

Seong-Jin Cho, piano · Philharmonic Society of Orange County

Jan 28 - Feb 1, 2026

Debussy Mozart Schoenberg · Munich Philharmonic

5 - 7 Feb, 2026

Hadelich Plays Mendelssohn · The Cleveland Orchestra

Past events

Dec 16, 2025

Transfigured Night · Cadogan Hall

Dec 7, 2025

Barenboim-Said Academy · Konzerthaus Blaibach

About

Arnold Schönberg hasn't added a bio