Transfigured: 12 lives of Schönberg

Founder of the "Vienna School", Arnold Schönberg embodies an aesthetic turning point, linked to the most tormented history of the twentieth century.

A leading light of modernity, founder of the "Vienna School", Arnold Schönberg embodies an aesthetic turning point, linked to the most tormented history of the twentieth century: twelve stations are not too many to approach such a phenomenon.

A major artist of the twentieth century and a radical renovator of musical thought, Arnold Schönberg was also a theorist and painter, and never ceased to explore his synaesthetic thinking, particularly through his self-portraits. Ariane Matiakh and Bertrand Bonello offer us a kaleidoscopic diffraction of the "Schönberg phenomenon".

The man whose music ushered in an aesthetic era, but who was also branded a "degenerate" composer by the Nazi regime, is revealed through the prism of the number 12: as the twelve sounds of the chromatic scale that founded the dodecaphonic system, and as twelve excerpts from works representative of his imagination in perpetual transfiguration: From Pelléas et Mélisande to Erwartung, from Pierrot lunaire to the Piano Concerto, the orchestra, the Lieder and the piano all compete in their commitment to showcase the full Schönbergian palette, before and in front of history.

English title Transfigured: 12 lives of Schönberg
Genre Live Show
Recording location Paris' Philharmonie
Production year 2024
Duration 110'
Video format HD
Production Company Walter Films
TV Director Antoine Carlier
Musical style Classical
English title of music work Transfigured: 12 lives of Schönberg
Composer Schönberg
Orchestra / Band Paris' Orchestra
Conductor Ariane Matiakh
Chorus Master Richard Wilberforce
Stage Director Bertrand Bonello
Stage Director Emanuele Sinisi
Costumes Pauline Jacquard