Friday 13 December 2024
10:00-16:00
MIM- Musical Instruments Museum- Hofbergstraat 2, 1000 Brussel
No registration needed
Symposium Arnold Schönberg and his Wiener Kreis
Lectures, book presentation and concert
This symposium will take a closer look at Arnold Schönberg's far-reaching influence in Vienna and beyond. The focus will be on Pierrot Lunaire, the revolutionary work of 1912, which will be performed live, together with some other compositions that can be linked to the literary influence of the Second Viennese School (e.g., texts by Peter Altenberg).
Lectures by Giacomo Danese, Jurgen De Pillecyn and Kristin Van den Buys will discuss specific aspects of Schönberg's work and reception. Jurgen De Pillecyn and Giacomo Danse will outline the context of Pierrot Lunaire and the members of the Wiener Kreis, such as Adorno. Kristin Van den Buys will focus more specifically on the reception of Schönberg’s work in Brussels during the interwar period (1919-1939). She will also play early recordings of performers associated with Schönberg, such as the Kolisch Quartet and pianist Eduard Steuermann, as well as the Belgian Pro Arte Quartet.
Claudia Maurer Zenck will present her book on the correspondence between two of Schönberg's greatest interpreters, Rudolf Kolisch and Theodor W. Adorno.
Theodor W. Adorno, Rudolf Kolisch
Briefwechsel 1926–1969
Edited by Claudia Maurer Zenck, Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2023.
Book Description
In March 1925, at the age of 21, Adorno moved to Vienna to continue his compositional studies with Alban Berg. Berg introduced him to the Vienna String Quartet and its 28-year-old leader Rudolf Kolisch, one of the most important interpreters of the New Music of the Schönberg School. This was the common denominator for Adorno and Kolisch, who quickly became close and loyal friends.
Composition, analysis, reproduction, and not least the joint (but never realised) project of a »theory of musical performance« were the fertile ground of their exchange. This correspondence is now available in a first edition and offers insight into a relationship that is in many ways of particular importance for the history and performance theory of New Music in the 20th century.
The 286 letters and 22 documents of the final appendix contain not only details of the private lives of the two protagonists, but also additional elements for reconstructing a more articulated picture of the personal and professional upheavals of Adorno's final years.
Claudia Maurer Zenck
Claudia Maurer Zenck, born in 1948, is Professor of Historical Musicology at the University of Hamburg.
She studied piano at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg i.Br. with Jürgen Klodt, as well as musicology at the University of Freiburg (H. H. Eggebrecht, R. Dammann) and from 1971 to 1974 at the Technical University of Berlin (C. Dahlhaus).
She habilitated at the University of Innsbruck in 2000. From 1988 until 2001 she held the professorship for historical and critical music theory at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz.
Maurer Zenck's research interests include 20th century music, the work of E. Křenek, exile research and music in the Third Reich.
Her acclaimed standard work Ernst Krenek - A Composer in Exile was published in 1980. In 2020 and 2023, Suhrkamp Verlag published her editions of the correspondence between Theodor W. Adorno and Ernst Krenek (new edition) and between Adorno and Rudolf Kolisch.
Jurgen De Pillecyn
Born in Hamme in 1965, he enrolled at 1986 from KCB where he obtained several first prizes (fugue 1989). In 2000 he rounded off his studies with both a Masters Degree in Music Writing as in Composition (with Rafaël D’Haene). Together with his studies at the Conservatoire he studied Musicology at the KUL which led to a Masters Degree likewise, with a dissertation on the influence of Schumann on Brahms. He teaches at KCB since 1989 (Music Writing and Composition) and also at the Academy of Music of Schaarbeek (Music History).
His compositions are regularly performed in and outside Belgium and cover all genres : songs (in Dutch, French, German), chamber music (among them 3 string quartets and a sextuor), orchestral music (also a clarinet concerto) , music for solo instruments, choir. In 2018 his Oratorio ‘ Letters from the soul’ was performed on several occasions in Belgium and the Unites States. He gave masterclasses at several colleges and universities in Italy and the USA.
He is member of the Robert Schumann Gesellschaft Düsseldorf and Alumnus of the Académie Royale de Belgique.
Giacomo Danese
Giacomo Danese is Professor of Harmony and Music Analysis at the Luigi Cherubini State Conservatory in Florence. After studying music in Italy (piano diploma in 1993, composition diploma in 2000) and academic studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin (with Hermann Danuser) and the University of Roma Tre with E. Matassi (doctorate in philosophy), he taught at the Italian Conservatories of Cosenza, Milan, Pescara and Turin.
In 2008 he was visiting professor at the Conservatorio Superior de Música “A. Piazzolla” of Buenos Aires, in 2010-2011 Gastwissenschaftler for a research project sponsored by the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung in Berlin, and as of 2019 on guest professor at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel.
His publications on Adorno's music and aesthetic include: Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno. Il compositore dialettico, Die Klavierlieder Theodor W. Adornos im Kontext der Wiener Schule, Theodor Wiesengrund-Adornos Klavierlieder op. 3. Echos eines Wiener Abends für Zeitgenössische Musik, Durchaus rhapsodisch.
Kristin Van den Buys
Kristin Van den Buys studied musicology at Ghent University (1984) and obtained degrees in music theory, music analysis and Early Music at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp and KU Leuven (1987–91). Between 1990 and 2000, she worked at Radio 3, formerly the classical music channel of VRT, the national Flemish broadcasting institute. Her Ph.D. (KU Leuven, 2004) focused on musical modernism in Brussels and Antwerp during the interwar period.
From 2006 she is Chair of Research at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. Since 2014, she is also Professor of Music History, Campus Opera at the VUB.
Van den Buys has published widely on a variety of topics relating to music life in Brussels and Belgium, more specifically on the history of the Belgian radio and its orchestras. She is editor of the volume Het Orkest. Van het Radio-orkest tot Brussels Philharmonic in Flagey (Lannoo Campus, 2013) (The Orchestra. From the Radio Orchestra to Brussels Philharmonic in Flagey).