At a time when everything seemed on the brink and the old ways no longer looked fit for purpose, Anton Webern was part of a musical revolution – giving us new ways of hearing music, new ways of seeing the world. His six pieces for orchestra are whole worlds compressed into a few minutes of bleak beauty, terrifying dissonance and even more disturbing silence. It’s compelling.
Listening time 22 mins (podcast 9′, music 13′)
Performances here with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Pierre Boulez.:
And links to track 1 of 6 on Amazon and Apple Music. If you like it, you can buy it as a high quality download here. It’s the Six Pieces for orchestra, op.6
If you like to see your performers then the Berlin Phil played this at the BBC Proms in London a few years back conducted by Simon Rattle and you can watch it here on Youtube:
The Webern runs to 1:44:40. The whole concert is excellent and takes us on a Wagner-Strauss-Schoenberg-Webern-Berg Journey.
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