Arnold Schönberg

Selected Works for Piano

In the last few decades, Arnold Schönberg's piano works have found their place in the classical concert repertory. The acceptance of this rather small oeuvre has largely been the work of performing musicians. After the examples set by Eduard Steuermann and Else C. Kraus, pianists such as Glenn Gould, Maurizio Pollini and Claude Helffer (as well as many others) have, in their concerts and recordings, presented this group of works - Opp. 11, 19, 23, 25 and 33a/b - as an historically and aesthetically significant totality. Of particular importance has been the programming of these pieces in concerts along with Beethoven's sonatas, which, for a large circle of listeners, has lent them the aura of classical works of art.