Almost two years ago, I blogged about the fact that the Schoenberg Violin Concerto had not been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. (Actually it had been performed just once, in December 1974, with conductor James Levine and violinist Zvi Zeitlin.) Well, the orchestra programmed the piece for this month. But the performance was cancelled when both the conductor Christoph Eschenbach and the soloist Christian Tetzlaff, cancelled due to illness.
Next season’s program will be announced in a couple of weeks and we’ll have to see if the now twelve-year drought in Schoenberg performances by the LA Philharmonic on a regular subscription concert will continue. I don’t think there is another major orchestra in the world that has avoided playing Schoenberg for such a long period. Most of them perform Schoenberg’s music quite regularly. Only in his adopted home-town is he so mistreated. Very sad.