The Arvo Pärt Centre will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Austrian composer Arnold Schönberg with a special concert and a temporary exhibition dedicated to his work.
On 1 December, the Arvo Pärt Centre will commemorate Arnold Schönberg’s 150th and Anton Bruckner’s 200th anniversary with an extraordinary concert featuring the Arnold Schönberg Choir from Vienna in their first-ever performance in Estonia.
Founded in 1972 by artistic director Erwin Ortner, the Arnold Schönberg Choir is one of the most versatile and sought-after vocal ensembles in Austria. Their repertoire spans from Baroque to present-day compositions, with a special focus on contemporary a cappella choral music and large vocal-instrumental works.
The choir has enjoyed a personal relationship with Arvo Pärt, who dedicated his mixed choral piece Kleine Litanei to them. Commissioned by the Wien Museum in October 2015 for the reopening of the Virgilkapelle (St. Virgil’s Chapel), the work was performed by the Arnold Schönberg Choir, conducted by Erwin Ortner, during the festive opening night on 10 December 2015.
The upcoming concert at the Arvo Pärt Centre will include works by Bach, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Bruckner, Schönberg and Pärt.
The concert will be ushered in with a discussion between musicologist Professor Kristel Pappel and cultural journalist Joonas Hellerma, who explore the musical and philosophical worlds of Bruckner and Schönberg.
“The Arvo Pärt Centre proves to be an ideal setting for reflecting on both composers, as the works of Bruckner and Schönberg share several points of contact with Pärt’s music, whether it be the religious dimension or a rational composition method based on numbers. By a twist of fate, the composers also became fellow countrymen, as in 1980 and 1981, having left Estonia, Arvo Pärt first lived in Vienna, the former home city of Bruckner and Schönberg,” notes Kristina Kõrver from the Arvo Pärt Centre.”
On 27 November, the Arvo Pärt Centre, in collaboration with the Austrian Embassy in Tallinn, will open a temporary exhibition titled Arnold Schönberg: Life and Work.
The exhibition is dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Austrian composer Arnold Schönberg and presents him as a versatile creative figure – composer, music theorist, teacher, painter, poet and inventor.
Visitors will gain insight into Schönberg’s life across two continents – from Vienna to exile in New York and on to Los Angeles – highlighting his roles as a family man, friend and contemporary. The exhibition includes a timeline of Schönberg’s life and musical work, as well as his artwork, such as self-portraits, photographs and design concepts. Musical excerpts are accessible through a web platform via QR codes.
The exhibition was created by the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna and will remain open at the Arvo Pärt Centre until 8 December.
The Arnold Schönberg Center was founded in Vienna in 1998 to preserve the composer’s creative legacy, which was inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2011.
The exhibition is supported by the Austrian Embassy in Tallinn and the Federal Ministry Republic of Austria European and International Affairs.
The concert is supported by the Austrian Embassy in Tallinn and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport.