Schönberg from All Angles

The Arnold Schönberg Center, situated in the Palais Fanto for just over ten years, is literally a curved ball stone’s throw from where I live. Yesterday I was able to make a first proper visit. Upon entering the Center, one first encounters Schönberg’s actual working studio, replicated behind glass. But not everything is off limits. In another room, a number of his personal items (or facsimiles thereof) are displayed, laid out on tables and available for handling and examining, such as his idiosyncratic chess invention – coalition chess. He had a dry sense of humor that cuts right through the grainy archival recordings, continuously playing next to a comfortable sitting area with books, devoted to his works, readily available for perusal. One of the highlights of the Center is a small screening room with the Staatsoper performance of Schönberg’s opera, Moses und Aron, projected on a large screen. The score, projected as well and adjacent to the performance video, corresponds to the videotaped excerpts, with new pages appearing automatically. The entire Center, devoted to Schönberg's works, is a model of how such a brilliant and historic figure can be presented to the public using an array of media.