Source: Arnold Schönberg Center, Wien; https://archive.schoenberg.at/resources/pages/view.php?ref=2864&search=%21related2864
One of the greatest and most influential twentieth-century composers, Schönberg initially drew on the tradition of Mahler, Richard Strauss, Wagner, and Bruckner (Verklärte Nacht, String Quartet, Op. 7). Already in the Kammersinfonie, Op. 9, however, he demonstrated a new expressionist style. His Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11, Fünf Orchesterstücke, Op. 16, Pierrot lunaire, Op. 21, and Klavierstücke, Op. 23 map out Schönberg’s path towards the invention of dodecaphony as a new system of composition. He attracted pupils who took up his technique and applied it in their works in an artistically highly satisfying manner. Though Koffler was not one of Schönberg’s pupils, he was under a strong influence of that artist’s concepts.
In 1929 Koffler sent him his 15 Variations, Op. 9, requesting an appraisal. Schönberg replied that Koffler is ‘knowledgeable about 12-note transformations’ and that he considers the variations ‘very good’. Koffler treated Schönberg nearly like a guru, calling him (in a letter of 1929) ‘the only person in the world whom I utterly trust’. Koffler was committed to promoting Schönberg’s music by organising concerts dedicated to his music in Lwów and giving lectures about his achievements. In a tribute titled ‘Drei Begegnungen’, written for Schönberg’s sixtieth birthday in 1934, Koffler admits his fascination and the wish to meet the maestro in person (which probably never happened). Koffler submitted Schönberg’s Variationen für Orchester, Op. 31 for the ISCM Festival in Prague, independently of entries sent in by the national sections, and succeeded in having the work included in the festival programme.