The reason for this conversation is a new critical edition of Arnold Schönberg’s sole completed work for organ, Variations on a Recitative op. 40, for Universal Edition.

Special birthdays make it possible to regard artists’ works in a new light, reinterpret them, and perhaps also spot things that had previously gone undiscovered, with new approaches to familiar things facilitating the understanding of new aspects. In this spirit, the current special invites you to find out just how multifaceted the outstanding composers Anton Bruckner and Arnold Schönberg were.

The fact that Schönberg enjoyed near-“guru”-like veneration not only due to his exceptional artistic and pedagogical abilities but at least as much by virtue of his personal charisma is attested to not least by the multitude of prominent Schönberg pupils.

The music mediation award LEARN TO HEAR was recently conferred for the first time in anticipation of Arnold Schönberg’s 150th birthday in September 2024. Initiated by the Arnold Schönberg Center and conceived in cooperation with the mdw’s Department of Music Education Research and Practice, this award—which will be conferred annually for a period of five years—commemorates Arnold Schönberg as a pedagogue.

Inspired by Arnold Schönberg’s 150th birthday, which is currently being celebrated worldwide, the new exhibition at the mdw’s Exilarte Center sheds light on the social and cultural milieu inhabited by the Second Viennese School’s founder. Particular attention is paid to both Alexander Zemlinsky and Schönberg’s pupil and eventual assistant Richard Hoffmann.

Arnold Schönberg’s 150th birthday is in 2024—a jubilee year of numerous events in tribute to this universal artist and a pioneer of musical modernism. And Ulrike Anton, director of Vienna’s Arnold Schönberg Center, can now look back on her first full year.