Programming
Weekly performances with participation from young artists were encouraged, with none of his music. In 4 years, over 150 different works were performed. Some featured composers included: Bartok, Berg, Bittner, Busoni, Debussy, Dukas, Hauer, Kodaly, Korngold, Mahler, Milhaud, Pijper, Ravel, Reger, Satie, Franz Schmidt, and Zemlinsky (“anyone with a real face or name”).
The Society of Private Musical Performances rules:
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Performances are well-rehearsed
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List of pieces to be presented was not shared before the event
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Works will be repeated
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They are not open to the public
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Display of approval (e.g. applause) or disapproval not allowed (no critics allowed)
"Schönberg once again has a wonderful idea: […] to establish a society whose mission it is to present weekly performances of music from ‘Mahler to the present’ to its members."
(Alban Berg to his wife, Helene, July 1, 1918)
“Schoenberg and his pupils interpreted my music more magnificanty than anyone in Paris!”
(Concert dedicated to Ravel in 1920)
“I like good popular music, I enjoy it for its entertainment,” he said. “But not when it is just a mechanical repetition of things that have been done over and over before; not just commercial mass production. But then, there is some of that in the classical repertoire, too. And I do not like that.”
Modern Music Condensed (1948)
In trying to answer the question, “What is the greatest difference between contemporary music, of which yours is typical, and the music of which Beethoven is a representative example,” Schoenberg said:
“The big difference is that the progressive music today is condensed. This is not to say that the ideas in the new music are better – the contrary may be true – but they are expressed more concisely. Musical technique has advanced to a point where something may be said more concisely, without repetition and elaboration. The receptive listeners have become able to understand the more remote harmonic relations and to appreciate the less commonplace melodic successions."
“This is the exaggerated figure of speech, but it illustrates: To describe a house to a cave dweller, you would have to detail such things as floor, the walls, the roof, the doors and the windows. But today we know what a house is, and all we need say is house, and it expresses all those details without need to enumerate them."
“The same principle of conciseness and condensation and simplicity, applies of course also to modern literature and painting, as well as music.”