Music That Stayed With Me: Joe Hearson on the CSSO’s October Concert Programme

All music is about people. It might not explicitly say so, but every piece of music you’ll ever hear is, in some way, a reflection of the human experience.

Whether it’s the way we see and interact with the world and people around us, or even how we feel about ourselves, music provides a magnifying glass through which we can gain an even deeper understanding of who we are and who we might want to become.

Our 2026/27 season opening concert offers precisely this opportunity. From the charm of Mozart’s famous serenade, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music), to the playful energy and elegance of Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony, there is so much joy to be found in the programme. But there is also a more sombre tone to be found in Welsh composer Grace Williams’ Elegy for String Orchestra, which she revised in 1940 at a time of immense uncertainty and loss for Britain.

At the heart of the concert is a piece which I vividly remember hearing for the first time: Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, or Transfigured Night. It was about ten years ago, as a student in Manchester, and the piece was performed and recorded live by the BBC Philharmonic at the Bridgewater Hall. I was utterly captivated by it, so much so that I listened intently to the same performance once again when it was eventually broadcast on Radio 3.

Schoenberg is perhaps best-known for his development of the twelve-tone compositional technique, and his reputation can make some people wary. Make no mistake, though, Verklärte Nacht is not an atonal piece of music. Here, Schoenberg stretches the limits of what traditional tonal music can do, and the result is simply spellbinding; it is musical expression at its most raw and vulnerable.

The piece is based on a poem by Richard Dehmel. Schoenberg wrote it in 1899, during his developing relationship with Mathilde Zemlinsky, who would become his wife, and you don’t have to listen for too long to hear something of his own feelings towards Mathilde in the music.

The poem tells the story of a man and a woman walking together through a wood on a cold, moonlit night. They are in love, but there’s a catch. The woman, in despair and expecting all chances of a future together to be squandered, explains that she is carrying the child of another man.

What follows is an unequivocal acceptance from the man. He reassures her that the child need not be a burden to her, and that he will raise it as his own, saying:

“Look, how brightly the universe shines!
Splendour falls on everything around,
you are voyaging with me on a cold sea,
but there is the glow of an inner warmth
from you in me, from me in you.”

In places, Verklärte Nacht is dark and brooding. Elsewhere, its silences speak volumes and its romantic heart is unyielding. To me, it contains so much of what there is to feel not just in music, but in life.

When I lead the CSSO Strings on 3 October, I hope that I can share with you even a little of the transformative power I experienced at the Bridgewater Hall all those years ago.

Tickets for A Little Night Music can be purchased here or by calling Music Mania on 01782 206000.