Nocturnal dream sequences, expressionistic harlequinades

Franz Schreker and Arnold Schoenberg were two of the visionary thinkers of Vienna’s music scene in the Belle Époque. Standing on the threshold between late Romanticism and Modernism, they were looking for new forms of expression. Schreker, as his dance allegory Der Wind makes clear, remained committed to the sensuous musical language of the fin de siècle. Schoenberg, too, still made use of this style in his opulent early work Verklärte Nacht, but before long he went off on a different path: for example, with the avant-garde Pierrot Lunaire, one of his masterpieces. All three works on this programme are spellbindingly infused with a rapt, dreamlike atmosphere.

Members of the Berliner Philharmoniker

Marlene Ito violin

Stanley Dodds violin

Naoko Shimizu viola

Tobias Reifland viola

Martin Löhr cello

Uladzimir Sinkevich cello

Egor Egorkin flute

Andraž Golob clarinet

Stefan Dohr french horn

Philip Mayers piano

Tabatha McFadyen voice