Happy Birthday Arnold Schönberg!

Arnold Schönberg‘s monumental work Gurre-Lieder will be performed on the composer’s 150th birthday, with the same orchestra, the same choir and at the same venue.

Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder are an exceptional work. The technical effort required to perform them is so immense that they are rarely heard in concert: 130 musicians, 250 choristers and 6 soloists. On the occasion of the Viennese composer’s birthday on 13 September 2024, and as a highlight of the “Schönberg-year”, this monumental work will be performed by the Wiener Symphoniker: the orchestra that premiered the work in 1913, with the same choir and at the same venue.

Schönberg sets to music the poem cycle Gurresange by Danish novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen. This masterwork is generally considered the most important tonal work of the composer, alongside Verklärte Nacht.

David Butt Philip, tenor (Waldemar)
Vera-Lotte Boecker, soprano (Tove)
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano (Waldtaube)
Florian Boesch, bass-baritone (Peasant)
Gerhard Siegel, tenor (Klaus-Narr)
Angela Denoke, soprano (Narrator)

Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde
Wiener Symphoniker
Petr Popelka, conductor

Genre Classical concert
Duration 120 min
Recording date 13 September, 2024