Vienna is regarded as the capital of musical modernism, as embodied by Arnold Schönberg’s revolutionary world of sounds. Schönberg and Vienna have a close association, a connection that is currently very much in evidence in this anniversary year 2024.

An icon of musical modernism

Schönberg (13.9.1874, Vienna – 13.7.1951, Los Angeles) was the pioneer of modernism; his compositions transported his contemporaries to distant worlds. Schönberg was as attentive as he was uncompromising in shaping his epoch, and his music and attitude are still as relevant as ever today. He was also many things at the same time, a polymath in fact: composer, writer, teacher, theorist, painter, inventor, leading figure of the Viennese School and creator of the twelve-tone method, a turning point in the history of music post-1900.

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Schönberg 150 – a whole lot of Schönberg

The anniversary program is full to the brim, with many of Vienna’s cultural institutions getting involved. This will enable visitors to immerse themselves in the composer’s work and his way of thinking. Two major players are coordinating and curating the “Schönberg 150” anniversary year: the Arnold Schönberg Center and Wien Modern, Austria’s largest festival of modern music.

The Arnold Schönberg Center manages the estate of the founding father of twelve-tone music. The freely accessible archive comprises 20,000 pages of music and text manuscripts as well as diaries, concert programs, instruments and much more. Among the 3,500 photographs are Man Ray’s portrait of Schönberg, as well as shots of Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin. Music lovers can familiarize themselves with Schönberg, his ideas and his work in this dynamic educational and cultural center. Committed Schönberg fans will find a unique wealth of music manuscripts, writings, correspondence and scholarly materials.

Nuria Schoenberg Nono is the daughter of the late composer and President of the Arnold Schönberg Center Private Foundation in Vienna. She had this to say about the anniversary year:

It gives me and my family great pleasure that my father’s work will be heard in many different places to mark the 150th anniversary of Arnold Schönberg’s birth. He always expressed his emotions through his music and saw it as an evolution rather than a revolution. I hope that all the artists and the audience will enjoy lots of memorable performances.

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Hundreds of Schönberg events in 2024

Schönberg can be an inspiring influence, as the first half of the year has already proven with its 129 events. “Schönberg 150” comprises stage performances, readings, events, international master classes and educational workshops. Another 132 anniversary events will allow us to continue celebrating his life between July and December 2024. More than 50 participating institutions and partners are impressively demonstrating the power of collaboration in Vienna’s cultural life. Vienna is a city of music like no other.

Schönberg exhibitions

• Listening to love with Schönberg (05.29.2024 – 02.14.2025, Arnold Schönberg Center): Liebeslied music, symphonic poems and ensemble pieces are juxtaposed with private messages, literary and artistic testimonies to the loss of love and the fulfillment of longed-for affection.
• Triangle of the Viennese Tradition. Zemlinsky – Schönberg – Hoffmann (03.05. – 12.20.2024, Exilarte Zentrum der mdw)
• Arnold Schönberg. An artistic visionary. (07.10.2024 – 01.06.2025, Haus der Musik)

Schönberg at the Film Festival

This summer, the Film Festival on Rathausplatz will be both a cultural and culinary hotspot. Two concert film evenings will be dedicated to Schönberg: 

• On August 12, the Berliner Philharmoniker will grace the screen with Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht op. 4 and works by Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. This will be followed late in the evening by a recording of The Philharmonics with Strauss waltzes arranged by Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern in May 1921.
• The Grafenegg Festival Opening 2024 will take place on August 28: The Tonkunstler Orchestra and pianist Rudolf Buchbinder will perform George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Arnold Schönberg’s Pelleas and Melisande.

Schönberg performances

A major event on September 13 and 14, 2024 will kick things off at the end of the summer: this is the birthday concert featuring the “Gurre Lieder” at the Musikverein Wien, performed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Petr Popelka. The event will be accompanied by the symposium “Arnold Schönberg, Karl Kraus and their Viennese circles” and a special post office (with a special 150-year Schönberg stamp!) at the Arnold Schönberg Center.

© Arnold Schönberg Center, Wien. - Arnold Schönberg, Prag, 1924, Foto: Atelier Schlosser & Wenisch.

Wien Modern

From October 30 to November 30, 2024, the Wien Modern Festival will focus on contemporary perspectives. Some of the highlights will include:

• The Music Theater Premiere for Young Audiences The Princess – A Schönberg Fairy Tale based on a story by Arnold Schönberg at Dschungel Wien (premiere: November 7).
• Manos Tsangaris’ music theater world premiere Arnold Elevators with stops at the Secession, the Musikverein (Vienna Music Society), the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Arnold Schönberg Center (13-15, 1.9-21 November).
• Four-day performance of the complete Schönberg string quartets at the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Vienna Music Society – also for the 50th anniversary of the London Arditti Quartet (November 1, 2, 4, 5).
• Claudio Abbado concert at the Vienna Music Society with, among others, the scandalous piece composed by Schönberg pupil John Cage (November 29).
• Gala concert at Vienna City Hall: in addition to Schönberg, the performance classic Proposition by Alison Knowles will be performed, in which the orchestra will prepare a salad for the audience (November 6).
• The audience plays the leading role in the film Schönberg Pfeifen by pianist Marino Formenti and filmmaker Thomas Marschall. Schönberg’s famous desire “that people should know and whistle my melodies” was put to the test at numerous Viennese venues (premiere November 10 at the Reaktor).

Information & schedule

www.schoenberg150.at – including the anniversary brochure and a guide to Schönberg events worldwide, introductions to works, photos, a Schönberg profile and the short film “Arnold Schönberg – Who I am”.

Some of the partners of “Schönberg 150” include:

Arnold Schönberg Center / Arnold Schoenberg Chor / mdw – Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) / MAK - Museum of Applied Arts / Vienna Music Society/ ORF Ö1 / ORF RadioKulturhaus / PodiumFestival / RSO Wien / Staatstheater Augsburg / Superar / Wiener Konzerthaus / Vienna Philharmonic / Vienna State Opera/ Wiener Symphoniker / Wien Modern