This piece is unusual in concentrating all the elements of a symphony into a single movement; in being written for 15 solo instruments; in using chords built up of fourths; and in creating dissonances without immediate resolution. To its first audiences, the symphony seemed shocking. But today it is one of Schoenberg's most pleasing and accessible works.
Verklarte Nacht by Arnold Schoenberg Inspired by Richard Dehmel's poem "Verklärte Nacht" ("Transfigured Night"), this 1899 work for string sextet is very much in the late-Romantic tradition. Schoenberg deftly translates the poem's pathos into a monumental work of chamber music.
