Arnold Schönberg Violin Concerto Premiered On This Day in 1940

The first performance was given by Ukrainian-born American virtuoso Louis Krasner with The Philadelphia Orchestra – conducted by Leopold Stokowski.

Arnold Schönberg Violin Concerto Op. 36 premiered on this day in 1940.

The first performance was given by Ukrainian-born American virtuoso Louis Krasner with The Philadelphia Orchestra – conducted by Leopold Stokowski.

Krasner later produced a recording of the concerto, with conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic.

Whilst the 3 movement concerto employs twelve-tone techniques, it contains noticeably stronger tonal melodic and thematic structure than many of Schoenberg's earlier works. He dedicated the concerto to Anton Webern, his pupil.

This concerto, alongside with his String Quartet No. 4, were among the first works he composed in his new homeland, the United States– he was exiled from

He initially intended for Jascha Heifetz to premiere the work, however Heifetz declined, therefore Schönberg turned to Krasner.

The audience's response to the premiere was, at best, mixed; some listeners left the concert, while there was applause and whistling after the first movement.

MICHAEL BARENBOIM | SCHÖNBERG VIOLIN CONCERTO | PIERRE BOULEZ & THE MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA | 2011