Melbourne broadcaster 3MBS’s 2024 Marathon is, in part, a celebration of the 150th birthday of Arnold Schoenberg. It’s also an opportunity for second-time Artistic Director Wilma Smith to put one of her favourite masterpieces on the stage.

The annual, day-long event borrows its subtitle Transfigured from Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), a work conveying the love-at-first-sight giddiness the composer apparently experienced on meeting his first wife.

“It’s absolutely one of my most favourite chamber works,” Smith says. “One of the beautiful classics of Romantic repertoire and very uplifting.”

Wilma Smith. Photo © Agatha Yim/ Polyphonic Pictures.

Now in its 12th year, the Marathon is an exciting staple of Melbourne’s classical music scene. This year, it includes five concerts across the marathon’s nine hours, all performed in the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Primrose Potter Salon. Transfigured, for Smith, also perfectly parallels the experience of hearing chamber music in “such a special place”. 

“It’s a gorgeous venue; beautiful acoustics, lovely and intimate. I don’t know any player who doesn’t love to play in that...