a r t i s t : Arnold Schoenberg
t i t l e : Pierrot Lunaire
d a t e : 1998
l a b e l : Deutsche Grammophon
g e n r e : Classical
r l s. d a t e : Apr/2007
t r a c k s : 23
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 67,0 MB
_______________________________________________________________________
Arnold Schoenberg claimed he had never set out to be a
revolutionary. Yet the song cycle he wrote in 1912 based on
proto- expressionist poems and featuring a grotesque harlequin
figure, Pierrot Lunaire, still reverberates with its haunting,
startling originality. This work introduced the world to a
hitherto unthought-of musical landscape; to call it innovative
would be an absurd understatement. What's particularly
exciting about the undertaking here (Boulez's third recorded
take on this music) is how utterly fresh the music sounds, its
novelty unblunted and yet strangely beautiful--a far cry from
the forbidding Schoenberg of stereotype. Soprano Christine
SchΣfer negotiates the no-man's land between spoken word and
sung pitch--the technique known as Sprechstimme which
Schoenberg introduced here--with fascinating nuance. She
brings a cabaret-savvy sensibility to bear, along with a
gripping sense of pathos, alternately sweet and acrid. Boulez
treats the songs as miniatures, offering coloristic and
multiperspectival--almost Cubistic--portrayals of Pierrot. For
all the score's nebulous atmospherics, Boulez distills a keen,
sharp clarity of line and timbre. Also included is the
extraordinary song "HerzgewΣchse" (scored for harmonium,
celesta, and harp), in which SchΣfer matches her voice like a
"crystal sigh" to the instrumentation. The album is filled out
with Schoenberg's setting, during his exile from the Nazi
horror, of Byron's bitterly ironic "Ode to Napoleon
Buonaparte" for a baritone reciter. --Thomas MayArnold
Schoenberg claimed he had never set out to be a revolutionary.
Yet the song cycle he wrote in 1912 based on proto-
expressionist poems and featuring a grotesque harlequin
figure, Pierrot Lunaire, still reverberates with its haunting,
startling originality. This work introduced the world to a
hitherto unthought-of musical landscape; to call it innovative
would be an absurd understatement. What's particularly
exciting about the undertaking here (Boulez's third recorded
take on this music) is how utterly fresh the music sounds, its
novelty unblunted and yet strangely beautiful--a far cry from
the forbidding Schoenberg of stereotype. Soprano Christine
SchΣfer negotiates the no-man's land between spoken word and
sung pitch--the technique known as Sprechstimme which
Schoenberg introduced here--with fascinating nuance. She
brings a cabaret-savvy sensibility to bear, along with a
gripping sense of pathos, alternately sweet and acrid. Boulez
treats the songs as miniatures, offering coloristic and
multiperspectival--almost Cubistic--portrayals of Pierrot. For
all the score's nebulous atmospherics, Boulez distills a keen,
sharp clarity of line and timbre. Also included is the
extraordinary song "HerzgewΣchse" (scored for harmonium,
celesta, and harp), in which SchΣfer matches her voice like a
"crystal sigh" to the instrumentation. The album is filled out
with Schoenberg's setting, during his exile from the Nazi
horror, of Byron's bitterly ironic "Ode to Napoleon
Buonaparte" for a baritone reciter. --Thomas MayArnold
Schoenberg claimed he had never set out to be a revolutionary.
Yet the song cycle he wrote in 1912 based on proto-
expressionist poems and featuring a grotesque harlequin
figure, Pierrot Lunaire, still reverberates with its haunting,
startling originality. This work introduced the world to a
hitherto unthought-of musical landscape; to call it innovative
would be an absurd understatement. What's particularly
exciting about the undertaking here (Boulez's third recorded
take on this music) is how utterly fresh the music sounds, its
novelty unblunted and yet strangely beautiful--a far cry from
the forbidding Schoenberg of stereotype. Soprano Christine
SchΣfer negotiates the no-man's land between spoken word and
sung pitch--the technique known as Sprechstimme which
Schoenberg introduced here--with fascinating nuance. She
brings a cabaret-savvy sensibility to bear, along with a
gripping sense of pathos, alternately sweet and acrid. Boulez
treats the songs as miniatures, offering coloristic and
multiperspectival--almost Cubistic--portrayals of Pierrot. For
all the score's nebulous atmospherics, Boulez distills a keen,
sharp clarity of line and timbre. Also included is the
extraordinary song "HerzgewΣchse" (scored for harmonium,
celesta, and harp), in which SchΣfer matches her voice like a
"crystal sigh" to the instrumentation. The album is filled out
with Schoenberg's setting, during his exile from the Nazi
horror, of Byron's bitterly ironic "Ode to Napoleon
Buonaparte" for a baritone reciter. --Thomas MayArnold
Schoenberg claimed he had never set out to be a revolutionary.
Yet the song cycle he wrote in 1912 based on proto-
expressionist poems and featuring a grotesque harlequin
figure, Pierrot Lunaire, still reverberates with its haunting,
startling originality. This work introduced the world to a
hitherto unthought-of musical landscape; to call it innovative
would be an absurd understatement. What's particularly
exciting about the undertaking here (Boulez's third recorded
take on this music) is how utterly fresh the music sounds, its
novelty unblunted and yet strangely beautiful--a far cry from
the forbidding Schoenberg of stereotype. Soprano Christine
SchΣfer negotiates the no-man's land between spoken word and
sung pitch--the technique known as Sprechstimme which
Schoenberg introduced here--with fascinating nuance. She
brings a cabaret-savvy sensibility to bear, along with a
gripping sense of pathos, alternately sweet and acrid. Boulez
treats the songs as miniatures, offering coloristic and
multiperspectival--almost Cubistic--portrayals of Pierrot. For
all the score's nebulous atmospherics, Boulez distills a keen,
sharp clarity of line and timbre. Also included is the
extraordinary song "HerzgewΣchse" (scored for harmonium,
celesta, and harp), in which SchΣfer matches her voice like a
"crystal sigh" to the instrumentation. The album is filled out
with Schoenberg's setting, during his exile from the Nazi
horror, of Byron's bitterly ironic "Ode to Napoleon
Buonaparte" for a baritone reciter. --Thomas MayArnold
Schoenberg claimed he had never set out to be a revolutionary.
Yet the song cycle he wrote in 1912 based on proto-
expressionist poems and featuring a grotesque harlequin
figure, Pierrot Lunaire, still reverberates with its haunting,
startling originality. This work introduced the world to a
hitherto unthought-of musical landscape; to call it innovative
would be an absurd understatement. What's particularly
exciting about the undertaking here (Boulez's third recorded
take on this music) is how utterly fresh the music sounds, its
novelty unblunted and yet strangely beautiful--a far cry from
the forbidding Schoenberg of stereotype. Soprano Christine
SchΣfer negotiates the no-man's land between spoken word and
sung pitch--the technique known as Sprechstimme which
Schoenberg introduced here--with fascinating nuance. She
brings a cabaret-savvy sensibility to bear, along with a
gripping sense of pathos, alternately sweet and acrid. Boulez
treats the songs as miniatures, offering coloristic and
multiperspectival--almost Cubistic--portrayals of Pierrot. For
all the score's nebulous atmospherics, Boulez distills a keen,
sharp clarity of line and timbre. Also included is the
extraordinary song "HerzgewΣchse" (scored for harmonium,
celesta, and harp), in which SchΣfer matches her voice like a
"crystal sigh" to the instrumentation. The album is filled out
with Schoenberg's setting, during his exile from the Nazi
horror, of Byron's bitterly ironic "Ode to Napoleon
Buonaparte" for a baritone reciter. --Thomas MayArnold
Schoenberg claimed he had never set out to be a revolutionary.
Yet the song cycle he wrote in 1912 based on proto-
expressionist poems and featuring a grotesque harlequin
figure, Pierrot Lunaire, still reverberates with its haunting,
startling originality. This work introduced the world to a
hitherto unthought-of musical landscape; to call it innovative
would be an absurd understatement. What's particularly
exciting about the undertaking here (Boulez's third recorded
take on this music) is how utterly fresh the music sounds, its
novelty unblunted and yet strangely beautiful--a far cry from
the forbidding Schoenberg of stereotype. Soprano Christine
SchΣfer negotiates the no-man's land between spoken word and
sung pitch--the technique known as Sprechstimme which
Schoenberg introduced here--with fascinating nuance. She
brings a cabaret-savvy sensibility to bear, along with a
gripping sense of pathos, alternately sweet and acrid. Boulez
treats the songs as miniatures, offering coloristic and
multiperspectival--almost Cubistic--portrayals of Pierrot. For
all the score's nebulous atmospherics, Boulez distills a keen,
sharp clarity of line and timbre. Also included is the
extraordinary song "HerzgewΣchse" (scored for harmonium,
celesta, and harp), in which SchΣfer matches her voice like a
"crystal sigh" to the instrumentation. The album is filled out
with Schoenberg's setting, during his exile from the Nazi
horror, of Byron's bitterly ironic "Ode to Napoleon
Buonaparte" for a baritone reciter. --Thomas MayArnold
Schoenberg claimed he had never set out to be a revolutionary.
Yet the song cycle he wrote in 1912 based on proto-
expressionist poems and featuring a grotesque harlequin
figure, Pierrot Lunaire, still reverberates with its haunting,
startling originality. This work introduced the world to a
hitherto unthought-of musical landscape; to call it innovative
would be an absurd understatement. What's particularly
exciting about the undertaking here (Boulez's third recorded
take on this music) is how utterly fresh the music sounds, its
novelty unblunted and yet strangely beautiful--a far cry from
the forbidding Schoenberg of stereotype. Soprano Christine
SchΣfer negotiates the no-man's land between spoken word and
sung pitch--the technique known as Sprechstimme which
Schoenberg introduced here--with fascinating nuance. She
brings a cabaret-savvy sensibility to bear, along with a
gripping sense of pathos, alternately sweet and acrid. Boulez
treats the songs as miniatures, offering coloristic and
multiperspectival--almost Cubistic--portrayals of Pierrot. For
all the score's nebulous atmospherics, Boulez distills a keen,
sharp clarity of line and timbre. Also included is the
extraordinary song "HerzgewΣchse" (scored for harmonium,
celesta, and harp), in which SchΣfer matches her voice like a
"crystal sigh" to the instrumentation. The album is filled out
with Schoenberg's setting, during his exile from the Nazi
horror, of Byron's bitterly ironic "Ode to Napoleon
Buonaparte" for a baritone reciter.
--Thomas May
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01-pierrot lunaire part 1 i mondestrunken [01:37]
02-pierrot lunaire part 1 ii colombine [01:38]
03-pierrot lunaire part 1 iii der dandy [01:12]
04-pierrot lunaire part 1 iv eine blasse wascherin [01:25]
05-pierrot lunaire part 1 v valse de chopin [01:17]
06-pierrot lunaire part 1 vi madonna [01:54]
07-pierrot lunaire part 1 vii der kranke mond [02:17]
08-pierrot lunaire part 2 i nacht [02:05]
09-pierrot lunaire part 2 ii gebet an pierrot [00:52]
10-pierrot lunaire part 2 iii raub [01:08]
11-pierrot lunaire part 2 iv rote messe [01:47]
12-pierrot lunaire part 2 v galgenlied [00:18]
13-pierrot lunaire part 2 vi enthauptung [02:10]
14-pierrot lunaire part 2 vii die kreuze [02:16]
15-pierrot lunaire part 3 i heimweh [02:04]
16-pierrot lunaire part 3 ii gemeinheit! [01:06]
17-pierrot lunaire part 3 iii parodie [01:20]
18-pierrot lunaire part 3 iv der mondfleck [00:55]
19-pierrot lunaire part 3 v serenade [02:23]
20-pierrot lunaire part 3 vi heimfahrt [01:40]
21-pierrot lunaire part 3 vii o alter duft [01:43]
22-herzgewaechse op.20 [03:16]
23-ode to napoleon buonaparte op.41 [16:15]
-------
52:38 min