Live, Video: Kritiken zu klassischen Konzerten, Opern, Ballett und Tanz finden | Fünf Orchesterstücke, Op.16

Vor der US- und Kanada-Tour ergreifen die Berliner Philharmoniker unter ihrem Chefdirigenten mit einem fein durchdachten, atemberaubend gespielten Programm.

Sous la direction engagée de Matthias Pintscher, l'Ensemble intercontemporain a brillé dans un concert consacré au maître de la Seconde école de Vienne, Arnold Schönberg.

Wellber may have lots planned for the BBC Philharmonic over the coming years, but this exciting programme showed that he didn’t want to waste any time delivering.

Una notable masa sonora y destellos de intervenciones solistas que atestiguan la prometedora pasta -en realidad, los resultados ya están a la vista- que conforma actualmente la criatura del maestro Abbado. 

James Levine’s excellent CSO appearance included a first half juxtaposing Mozart and Schoenberg anchored by a memorable Symphonie fantastique, and even a tribute to the victorious Chicago Cubs.

Bold choices married with family favourites for Proms Plus Family concert, but programming was not always matched by expression.

Oliver Knussen, the RSNO and Edinburgh Festival Chorus offer rarely heard titanic works in a packed Usher Hall.

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.

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.

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".

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.