BBC Proms - 2009 - Proms Plus - Proms Literary Festival: Music and Philosophy in Fin de Siecle Vienna

Susan Hitch invites philosophers Roger Scruton and AC Grayling to consider how iconoclastic thought found an echo in groundbreaking music in fin de siecle Vienna and how it resonates even today. What did Mahler owe to his study of Nietzsche? Were there many musicians who knew of and were inspired by Freud's Interpretation of Dreams when it appeared in 1899? And how did Wittgenstein respond to the music of late 19th century Vienna? The Austrian capital was a place of challenge and iconoclasm during this period and the boundaries between concert hall and study were blurring as thinkers and musicians re-evaluated the nature of human experience.