Schoenberg: Why He Matters

An evening with author Harvey Sachs in conversation with Larry Schoenberg
Dessert, savories, and fine wines afterward.

Belmont Music Publishers owner Larry Schoenberg talks about his father with Harvey Sachs, author of the critically acclaimed classical music bestselling biography Schoenberg: Why He Matters (2023).

Praised by composer John Adams (“one of the great narratives of 20th-century Western culture, and one can see how the story of this artist’s struggle for acceptance against the backdrop of the societal calamities of his era was so appealing to Sachs”, New York Times) this astonishingly lyrical biography rescues Schoenberg from notoriety, restoring him to his rightful place in the pantheon of twentieth-century composers.

Synthesizing Wagnerian excess with Brahmsian restraint, Schoenberg created a shock wave that never quite subsided, and, as Sachs powerfully argues, his compositions must be confronted by anyone interested in the past, present, or future of Western music.

He has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Times Literary Supplement; and for BBC, PBS, CBC and other radio and television networks. He has lectured at universities and cultural institutions worldwide; has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He holds an honorary doctorate from Cleveland Institute of Music and was the NY Philharmonic Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence.