Schoenberg and his pupils Berg and Webern are known as the Second Viennese School. They used a method of composing which stepped beyond the bounds of traditional language, using all twelve chromatic notes.

This recording contains some of the most important music written in the early 20th century. The dark intensity of Schoenberg’s earlier Expressionist pieces contrasts with the crisp textures and dance rhythms of his Suite, Op. 25. The power and beauty of Schoenberg’s music is matched by Berg in his precocious Sonata, with its outpouring of late-romantic emotion, and by Webern, whose Variations demonstrate the composer’s late style at its most crystalline.