Schönberg - Kammersymphonie n. 1 10 - 15 December 2024

Arnold Schönberg was born in Vienna one hundred and fifty years ago today. Radical and rigorous with both his students and himself, he had an immense influence on later generations of composers through his musical innovations. Chief among these was his twelve-tone technique—a complex, anti-tonal method for organising notes. Yet, it would be a mistake to reduce Schönberg’s music solely to the strict discipline of serialism, a structure that often reigns over emotion and seems to have a challenging relationship with public taste.

Schönberg, too, was once young. Like others of his generation, he was steeped in late Romantic, hyper-expressive musical culture. This overflowing expressionism runs through his early compositions, including the prominent Kammersymphonie Op. 9, which Spira will perform for the first time. Complex and a true manifesto of the early 20th-century Viennese avant-garde, this music also powerfully communicates feelings and sparks feverish emotions in ways the composer might never have achieved again.