Panorama de Leeuw XXI:
Schönberg Ensemble (2)

In Panorama de Leeuw on Wednesday 7 September, Thea Derks looks at the Schönberg Ensemble. The Schönberg Ensemble was formed in 1974 at the Conservatorium in Den Haag and immediately had a major impact. The most influential musician in the ensemble was the violist Henk Guittart, a man with a great love of the music of the Second Viennese School around Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern.

Guittart exchanged letters with Schönberg's children and visited them in Los Angeles in 1977. The were so impressed by his enthousiasm that they gave him a suitcase full of unpublished material. The violist was determined to perfom this music and was supported in this endeavour by the other members of the Schönberg Ensemble and by Reinbert de Leeuw.

Ambitious and acclaimed

This resulted in a number of
ambitious and acclaimed projects.
In 1981 the Schönberg Ensemble performed all of Schönberg's
chamber music, followed three
years later by Anton Webern and another year later by Alban Berg.
The membership of the ensemble
also slowly took on its definitive
form during this period.

In 1989 various musicians from the Schönberg Ensemble took part in
the world premier of the first opera
by Louis Andriessen: De Materie.
The conductor was Reinbert de
Leeuw, who was also responsible
for a series of concertante perfor-
mances three years later with the Asko Ensemble, Schönberg Ensemble and the Nederlands Kamerkoor.
These performances were also issued on CD.

Panorama de Leeuw

• Broadcast: Wednesday 7 September, 21:00 CET
• Repeat: Thursday 8 September, 17:00 CET