Ensemble concert: schönberg 150

Arnold Schönberg (1874 - 1951) 
Chamber Symphony No. 1 in E major op. 9 for 15 solo instruments (1906)

Philippe Manoury (* 1952) 
Mouvements for piano and 12 instruments (2019)

Charles Uzor (* 1961) 
"Go" - Ballet imaginaire for clarinet, piano, percussion and string quartet (1999/2019)

Friedrich Goldmann (1941 - 2009) 
Ensemble Concerto III for 16 instrumentalists (2007)

The innovations in Arnold Schönberg's music were linked to his knowledge of the historical development of musical language. In his First Chamber Symphony, he confronted a traditional form whose requirements he fulfilled as well as reinterpreted and at the same time established the instrumentation - a soloist ensemble instead of a large orchestra - that has remained influential for new music ensembles to this day.

Such a relationship to tradition also characterizes the other works on the programme. Philippe Manoury takes up the form of the solo concerto, albeit with a completely new accentuation: The solo instrument is contrasted with four trios, which try out a wide variety of constellations in twelve short movements. Although Charles Uzor intended "Go" as a dance piece, it has ultimately only been performed in concert, which explains the subtitle Ballet imaginaire.

Friedrich Goldmann's ensemble concerto takes its tonal material from an arioso in Bach's St. Matthew Passion: "Ach Golgatha, unsel'ges Golgatha". In its single movement, the work certainly corresponds to Schönberg's chamber symphony, but its dramatic progression is reversed, as it were: there is no triumphant final gesture, instead decay is composed out.

There will be an introduction to the concert at 18:45.