Short documentary: “Schoenberg and his circle” (18 min.)

In September 2010, the Berliner Philharmoniker, under the baton of its chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle, performed at the legendary “Proms” in London. The series of annual summer concerts has been around since the end of the 19th century, and takes place at the Royal Albert Hall which seats up to 9,500 people. For his guest appearance in his native England, Rattle opened the concert with the prelude from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, followed by Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs with soprano Karita Mattila, in which the composer, after the end of World War II looks longingly back to the musical language of the 19th century. After the interval, the programme continued with works by Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg, the three most important representatives of the Second Viennese School. In this film, musicologists and journalists discuss the programme, and a documentary follows their tracks in pre-World War One Vienna.