My War Years - Arnold Schoenberg

After the rare performance of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire the day before, the 8th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival will screen on the next day, Thursday 6 October 2016 at 20:30, Larry Weinstein’s documentary, My War Years – Arnold Schoenberg.

Arnold Schoenberg and his friends and students (including Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Alma Mahler, Erwin Stein, Roberto Gerhard, Wassily Kandinsky and Hanns Eisler) tell the story of the composer's life in their own words.

The film takes us on a journey from the beginning of the 20th century, when Schoenberg composed is last post-Romantic pieces and first atonal works, through to the WWI years, to the discovery of his Twelve-Tone method in the early 1920s. It features excerpts from live performances of Schoenberg's works such as Verklärte Nacht, the Gurre-Lieder, the Second String Quartet, Erwartung, Pierrot Lunaire.

Featured artists include: Pierre Boulez and the Ensemble InterContemporain, Marianne Pousseur, the Schoenberg Quartet, London Symphony Orchestra, Oliver Knussen and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Director: Larry Weinstein
Duration: 90'