Conductor Ilan Volkov introduces the New Century concerts by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Volkov and the BBC SSO perform Schönberg, Berg and Webern on Wednesday and Thursday next week.

Watch the video on YouTube.

From the web today, part 1

“Noten für Roger Federer”
A slide show of a tennis match between Federer and Djokovic complete with Arnold Schönberg’s tennis notation (from the Zurich Tages-Anzeiger, with thanks to @alexrossmusic for the tip).

From the web today, part 2

Pierre Boulez: “Ce qui m’intéresse, c’est la pointe de l’invention”
Read the full interview in Le Monde (with thanks to @iIRCAM for the tip).

We’re still celebrating Schönberg’s estate being included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, so here’s another chance to hear Wolfgang Rihm talking (in German) about Schönberg’s Variations Op. 31.

Here are translated excerpts.

By the way, the photo above is available as a mousepad (would you believe it!), as is this one.

We’ve just heard the incredible news that Schönberg’s documentation, archived at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna, has been included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

Congratulations Schönberg!

Read our news item here.

The New York City Opera’s impressive Monodramas production opens tonight. See our news item for full details and fascinating videos.

The Festive Days of Early Music begin next week at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.

We could argue about the meaning of ‘early music’ (in German ‘alte Musik’ literally means old music) and ‘modern music’, but we can safely call music that was composed a hundred years ago ‘old’. And it’s this music that will be presented by Klangforum Wien in three concerts this March.

The series begins with a programme containing Alban Berg’s Chamber Concerto, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen in the Schönberg arrangement, and Schönberg’s own Chamber Symphony Op. 9.

Wolfgang Rihm’s one-act opera Das Gehege returns to the Hamburg State Opera this Thursday (10th February) for a further three performances.

Das Gehege is presented in an evening-length programme called Trilogie der Frauen* [Trilogy of Women], which includes Schönberg’s Erwartung and Oscar Strasnoy’s Le Bal.

Watch a video presentation of the production

* not to be confused with Rihm’s own trilogy Drei Frauen, which consists of Aria/Ariadne, Das Gehege and the Penthesliea Monolog.