School of Schoenberg

Donald Macleod continues his journey through pre-war Vienna. A genius from a bygone age dies alone in a Vienna asylum ? and a young Alban Berg takes his first musical steps.

As part of World War I on the BBC, this week Radio 3 focuses on the European music scene in the years leading up to the First World War.
In the first decade and a half of the twentieth century, Vienna was the hub of the world's art, music and philosophy. Donald Macleod takes us through the key musical figures and works that made waves in pre-war Vienna, including Mahler, Korngold, Zemlinsky and the "Second Viennese School" of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, and explores the personal, musical and philosophical conflicts that tore it apart.

In the Autumn of 1904, Arnold Schoenberg ? looking for some much-needed extra income ? placed an ad in a Viennese newspaper for pupils desiring musical instruction. His students would change the history of music. Donald Macleod explores the relationship between the young Berg and Webern and their mentor ? himself only a few years older ? and their musical cousin, the recently-heartbroken Alexander Zemlinsky. He finishes with a movement from Mahler's most neglected symphony ? the Seventh.