Main content

Breaking Free: Tom Service on the Second Viennese School

As part of Radio 3's Breaking Free season, Tom Service considers how to listen to the Second Viennese School, which developed from early expressionist ventures into atonality.

Breaking Free - the minds that changed music. Tom Service explores how to listen to the Second Viennese School - music that exploded with expressive feeling in the early years of the 20th century, and then gradually rebuilt harmony into a new system, using the 12-note series. He explains how the music developed from Arnold Schoenberg's early expressionist ventures into atonality, to the cool jewel-like precision of his pupil Anton Webern. In conversation with art historian Lisa Florman, he finds parallels in the painter Wassily Kandinsky's journey towards abstraction and his theories of shapes and colours. (Kandinsky was a friend of Schoenberg). And composer George Benjamin describes the intricate structures of Webern's music, which greatly inspired his own compositions.

Available now

29 minutes

Last on

New Year's Day 201717:00
BBC Radio 3

More episodes

Previous

The bells, the bells...

Next

Whatever Happened to the Waltz?

See all episodes from The Listening Service

Clip

Music Played

  • Alban Berg

    Wozzeck - Act 1 Sc.3

    Performer: Vienna Philharmonic. Performer: Claudio Abbado.
    • Wozzeck.
    • DG.

  • Franz Liszt

    Faust (Faust Symphony)

    Orchestra: Budapest Festival Orchestra. Conductor: Iván Fischer.
    • PHILIPS.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Symphony no.40 in G minor K.550 (1st mvt)

    Orchestra: Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Charles Mackerras.
    • Mozart; Symphonies 38-41; SCO; Sir Charles Mackerras.
    • Linn.

  • Anton Bruckner

    Symphony no.9, Adagio

    Performer: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Performer: Bernard Haitink.
    • Philips.

  • Arnold Schoenberg

    Six Little Piano Pieces Op.19 no.1

    Performer: Mitsuko Uchida.
    • Philips.

  • Arnold Schoenberg

    Six Little Piano Pieces Op.19 no.4

    Performer: Mitsuko Uchida.
    • Philips.

  • Alban Berg

    3 Orchestral Pieces Op.6

    Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker. Performer: James Levine.
    • Philips.

  • Arnold Schoenberg

    Erwartung

    Performer: Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Performer: James Levine.
    • Philips.

  • Arnold Schoenberg

    String Quartet no.2, 4th mvt

    Performer: Quatuor Diotima.
    • NAIVE.

  • Arnold Schoenberg

    5 Pieces for Piano, Op 23, 5. Waltz

    Performer: Glenn Gould.
    • Works by Schoenberg.
    • CBS.
    • 8.

  • Arnold Schoenberg

    Variations for Orchestra Op. 31

    Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker. Performer: Herbert von Karajan.
    • DG.

  • Arnold Schoenberg

    String Quartet No. 4, Op. 37

    Performer: Schoenberg Quartet.
    • String Quartets.
    • Chandos.

  • Arnold Schoenberg

    Concerto for Piano, Op. 42

    Performer: Mitsuko Uchida. Performer: The Cleveland Orchestra. Performer: Pierre Boulez.
    • Philips.

  • Arnold Schoenberg

    Moses Und Aron

    Performer: Chicago Symphony Chorus and Orchestra. Performer: Georg Solti.
    • Moses Und Aron.
    • Decca.

  • Anton Webern

    Symphony Op.21, 1st Movement

    Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker. Performer: Pierre Boulez.
    • Philips.

  • Anton Webern

    5 Pieces Op.10 no.4

    Performer: Ensemble intercontemporain. Performer: Pierre Boulez.
    • Philips.

Broadcast

  • New Year's Day 201717:00
    BBC Radio 3

Why do we call it 'classical' music?

Why do we call it 'classical' music?

Tom Service poses a very simple question (with a not-so-simple answer).

Six of the world's most extreme voices

Six of the world's most extreme voices

From babies to Mongolian throat singers: whose voice is the most extreme of all?

How did the number 12 revolutionise music?

How did the number 12 revolutionise music?

How Schoenberg opened a new cosmos for composers and listeners to explore.

Why are we all addicted to bass?

Why are we all addicted to bass?

Bass is everywhere, but why do we enjoy it? Join Tom Service on a journey of discovery.

Watch the animations

Watch the animations

Join Tom Service on a musical journey through beginnings, repetition and bass lines.

When does noise become music?

When does noise become music?

We like to think we can separate “noise” from “music”, but is it that simple?

Podcast