Schoenberg: Reshaping Tradition

We open our 2024/25 season with a portrait of one of the most misunderstood pioneers of the early 20th-century avant-garde. Arnold Schoenberg's early works such as hisChamber Symphony,written in 1906, expanded the lush harmonies of late Romanticism to the extent that it scandalised audiences and incited them to riot at the strange physicality of the sounds they were hearing.

Schoenberg and his pupils, among them Anton Webern, pushed this experiment in chromaticism to its extreme conclusion, eventually doing away with tonality in its entirety in the development of the twelve-tone system, also known as serialism or dodecaphony. The school of composition had a profound effect on the rest of the 20th Century, influencing composers who followed including Elisabeth Lutyens. 

This most recent edition in London Sinfonietta's series of season-opening composer portraits celebrates Schoenberg in his 150th anniversary year. With pre-concert talks and video, this event will provide a thought-provoking and engaging introduction to a composer who changed the tradition he worked within.

Arnold Schoenberg  Serenade Op. 24
Anton Webern  Symphony Op. 21
Arnold Schoenberg  Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte Op. 41 
Arnold Schoenberg  Piano Pieces Op.19
Elisabeth Lutyens  Six Tempi for 10 Instruments
Arnold Schoenberg  Chamber Symphony Op. 9 

Conductor Jonathan Berman 
London Sinfonietta