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Kate Molleson explores Schoenberg’s final years in exile in the US.

Is there a more controversial, infamous figure in 20th-century music than Arnold Schoenberg? Arguably no other 20th-century composer’s ideas have been more influential among composers since; however, his music is still neglected and misunderstood by programmers and audiences. Schoenberg was a revolutionary - one of the founders of musical Modernism - but he also recognised the importance of musical tradition. His music defined the times in which he lived, and whether you see Schoenberg as the most important innovator in 20th-century music, or as a heretic who led his followers to an artistic dead end, he was absolutely dedicated to art – both musical and visual. Over the course of this week, Kate Molleson explores the twists and turns of Schoenberg’s life, and tracks the composer’s changing relationship with art through the prism of 5 different visual works, from an image which terrified and obsessed Schoenberg as a child, through the composer’s own paintings, and one of his practical twelve-tone selection dials, to a portrait of Schoenberg painted while he was in exile in America, by his friend and fellow composer George Gershwin.

In Friday’s programme, Kate Molleson explores Schoenberg’s final years in exile in the US. The friends and colleagues who surrounded him at this time seem very much at odds with the image we have today of Schoenberg as the serious and intense arch modernist. We learn about his love of tennis, his friendship with George Gershwin, and see how Schoenberg made an impact on Hollywood without ever writing a film score!

Prelude to Genesis
Festival Singers of Toronto
CBC Symphony Orchestra
Robert Craft, conductor

Suite for string orchestra (2nd mvt, Adagio)
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
John Mauceri, conductor

Brahms (orch. Schoenberg)
Piano Quartet No 1 in G Minor, Op 25 (2nd mvt, Intermezzo)
Luzerner Sinfonieorchester
Michael Sanderling, conductor

Chamber Symphony No 2, Op 38b
Philharmonia Orchestra
Robert Craft, conductor

A Survivor from Warsaw, Op 46
John Horton, speaker
Festival Singers of Toronto
CBC Symphony Orchestra
Robert Craft, conductor

Notturno
Daniel Hope, violin
Jane Berthe, harp
Zürcher Kammerorchester

Produced by Sam Phillips for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Audio Wales & West