| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 29-Jan-2013 Southbank Centre: Queen Elizabeth Hall | London Sinfonietta tackles Webern for The Rest is Noise |
 The works of Anton Webern – famously described by Stravinksy as “dazzling diamonds” – have been “unwrapped” as part of The Rest is Noise festival this month. This was a timely project, as the output of this Second Viennese School composer has often been misrepresented due to its considerable (and problematic) impact on 20th- and 21st-century music.Read full review... | |
| 4-Sep-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 71: Mixed doubles from St Louis Symphony |
 On 3 September 1912, in a Proms concert which also featured a comedy overture by Granville Bantock and excerpts from Délibes’ ballet Coppélia, Henry Wood and his Queen’s Hall Orchestra gave the world première of Arnold Schoenberg’s Five Orchestral Pieces, a landmark work in atonal expressionism which drew hisses from the hall audience.Read full review... | |
| 30-May-2012 City Halls: Concert Hall | The New Century: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Schubert, Schoenberg and Berg |
 Few quotations have surprised, delighted and saddened me as much as this remark by Schoenberg: "There is nothing I long for more intensely than to be taken for a better sort of Tchaikovsky. People should know my tunes and whistle them." This was one of several anecdotes offered by Discovering Music's Stephen Johnson in the pre-concert talk on "The New Century". In the first of two concerts, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra presented a programme of works by Schoenberg, Berg and Schubert. Schubert? In the new century?Read full review... | |
| 17-Feb-2012 Musikverein: Großer Saal | Hilary Hahn excels in rare Schoenberg programme |
 Arnold Schoenberg rarely forms the backbone of orchestral concerts in either of his two homelands, and in an ideal world there would be more concerts like this, particularly in Vienna. We should however also remember that when it came to his music Schoenberg was concerned as much with the quality as with the quantity of performances, and while Péter Eötvös’s conducting may not have met the master’s uncompromising standards the RSO Wien contributed some committed and lyrical playing which took off much of the rebarbative edge that has limited place in Schoenberg’s writing.
Read full review... | |
