Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21, of 1912, is one of the best-known works of his atonal-but-not-12-tone period. It's a cycle of 21 short poem settings in Schoenberg's Sprechstimme style, for voice and a small, much-imitated chamber ensemble, not specified as to voice though usually performed by a soprano. The work is hallucinatory, drifting in and out of various perspectives and scenes, based on a stock character of the French commedia dell'arte into which the Symbolists and Expressionists poured some of their ...
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Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21, of 1912, is one of the best-known works of his atonal-but-not-12-tone period. It's a cycle of 21 short poem settings in Schoenberg's Sprechstimme style, for voice and a small, much-imitated chamber ensemble, not specified as to voice though usually performed by a soprano. The work is hallucinatory, drifting in and out of various perspectives and scenes, based on a stock character of the French commedia dell'arte into which the Symbolists and Expressionists poured some of their wilder ideas. None is wilder than Schoenberg's work, and singers face the decision of how far over the top to go with it. Patricia Kopatchinskaja is known as a violinist, not a singer, but on this album, she takes the vocal part; she has been known to both sing and play violin in the ensemble, yet here, she forbears. It would have been in the spirit of her performance to do both, for her reading of the work is one of the most extreme on recordings. Such spooky moments as the...
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