Schoenberg: Verklate Nacht - London Sinfonietta, Sarah Connolly, Nicholas Collon

Schönberg
Verklärte Nacht for string sextet, Op. 4 (1899)
At its premiere Transfigured Night caused, in Schönberg's own words, ‘riots and fist fights’. Its then uncategorised ‘inverted ninth’ chord had the composer ejected from the Vienna Music Society. Richly chromatic and passionately expressive, it's become one of his best-loved works.

In Richard Dehmel's narrative poem' of the same name, lovers walk in the moonlight; she confesses she is with child by another man she doesn't love, he reassures her he'll love the child and they'll be together. The dark, D minor tonality bursts into major radiance as he answers her, one of the great climaxes in all chamber music.

‘Every time I come back to this work I am gobsmacked by its saturated emotional atmosphere; it's a 25-minute journey which feels like a whole opera. The combination of incredibly rich counterpoint and a harmonic language stretched beyond what should be possible makes for a uniquely intense experience.’
- Jonathan Morton (London Sinfonietta) on Schönberg's Verklärte Nacht

Part of Kings Place's Chamber Classics Unwrapped concert series in 2014