Schoenberg: Reshaping Tradition
The London Sinfonietta opens its 2024/25 season with a portrait of one of the most misunderstood pioneers of the early 20th-century avant-garde.
Arnold Schoenberg’s early works, such as his Chamber Symphony of 1906, expanded the lush harmonies of late Romanticism to the extent that it scandalised audiences and incited them to riot at the strange physicality of the sounds they were hearing.
Schoenberg and his pupils, among them Anton Webern, pushed this experiment in chromaticism to its extreme conclusion, eventually doing away with tonality in its entirety in the development of the 12-tone system, also known as serialism or dodecaphony.
This most recent edition in London Sinfonietta’s series of season-opening composer portraits celebrates Schoenberg in his 150th anniversary year. With staging devised by Theatre of Sound, this event provides a thought-provoking and engaging introduction to a composer who changed the tradition he worked within.
Performers
London Sinfonietta
Jonathan Berman conductor
Andrew Zolinsky piano
Richard Burkhard baritone, speaker
Repertoire
Schoenberg: Serenade, Op.24
Lutyens: 6 Tempi for 10 instruments
Schoenberg: Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, Op.41
Interval
Schoenberg: 6 Little pieces for piano, Op.19
Webern: Symphony, Op.21
Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No.1, Op.9
Need to know
Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer at 6.15pm: pre-concert talk with conductor Jonathan Berman, musicologist Jonathan Cross and Royal Holloway professor of music Julie Brown. Admission free.
This performance contains haze.
For your visit
This event is held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is open from 90 minutes before events start until they finish. It’s closed at all other times.
Plan your visit
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is home to both our second-largest auditorium and the Purcell Room.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Food & drink
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.