Brano: [...]KTOR REDTENBACHER, VIOLIN EUGENIE ALTMANNCLOETER,
VIOLA FRIEDRICH HILLER, CELLO
FRIEDRICH CERHA, DIRECTOR
i
/''ine of thè most distinctive milestones on thè long and ^ tortuous road travcled by western music, thè Pierrot Lunaire of Arnold Schoenberg* (18741951) is also one of those unfortunate masterpieces destined to be more often — and more heatedly — discussed than actually listened to. Certainly it is less often performed than any of thè other comparably significant achievements of twentiethcentury composers — Stravinsky’s Sacre du printemps of less than a year later, say, or even Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande of a decade earlier. Yet it makes no such sizeable personnel demands, calling for only a single vocalist and no more than five instrumentai ists. Nor is it any harder on tender ears: its dissonances are relatively mild even by World War I standards, and its idiom is by no means as abstract as Schoenberg’s, and his pupils’, later works in thè twelvetone system — to say nothing of today’s serial, aleatory, computorized, or electronically synthesized music.
This is not to claim, however, that Pierrot Lunaire is not difficult. It is extremely hard to perform well, especially for thè vocalist who has to walk a precarious tightrope bctween recitation and song in Schoenberg’s idiosyncratic Sprechtimme requirements, which every performer interprets somew[...]
[...]riginally Schònberg, and stili sospelled in Germanspeaking countries. The composer himself sanctioned thè spelling “Schoenberg” after he carne to thè United States in 1933.
Side I — 23:15 Min.
Arnold Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (Beginning)
Part I (12:10 Min.)
Part II (11:00 Min.)
Side 2 — 11:22 Min.
Arnold Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (Conclusioni
Part III
clarìnet), violin (viola), ’cello, and piano, but many of thè settings demand no more than three or four of these, while only a single instrument is demanded in No. 7 and only two in No. 9. The instruments often are heard alone as well as with thè Sprechstimme, and even in thè latter case they supply no mere àccompaniment in thè usuai sense of thè term — rather a quasiautonomous mosaic of a myriad minute, abstract, tonai details.
Al though thè work gives thè impression (as noted by Cecil Gray) that thè settings were composed “with lightning rapidity and absolute sureness of touch in a continuous, unflagging jet of whitehot inspiration,” Schoen[...]
[...]eft): Màssige: 20 bara; flute, clarìnet, violin, and ’cello. Robbery of a princely ruby by Pierrot and his rascally pals.
No. 11. Rote Messe (Red Mass): Màssig rasch: 29 bara: piccolo, bass clarìnet, viola, ’cello, and piano. Pierrot celebrates thè grisly communion of a parody Mass.
No. 12. Galgenlied (Song of thè Gallows): Sehr rasch: 13 bare; viola, 'cello, and later piccolo. The victim imagines that he is about to be strangled by a scrawny mistress rather than by die hangman's rape.
No. 13. Enthauptung (Decapitation): Ziemllch bewegte: 36 bare; bass clarìnet, viola, cello, and piano. Pierrot’s horrid fears of being beheaded by thè shining, scimitarlike crescent moon.
No. 14. Die Kreuze (The Crosses): Langsamer 22 bara: piano and voice alone at first, later with flute, clarìnet, violin, and ’cello. The crucifixions of thè poet on thè crosses of his own verses.
(Record Side 2) Part III, No. 15. Heimweh (Homesickness): In ahwechslungsreicher Bewegung: 31 bare: clarìnet, violin, piano, later with piccolo and 'cello. Pierro[...]
[...]nd piano. A barcarole of Pierrot’s safling homeward to Bergamo — in a waterlily craft with a moonbeam rudder.
_ No. 21. O alter Duft (O Olden Fragrance): Bewegt: 30 bars; flute/ piccolo, clarinet/bass clarìnet, violin/viola. ’cello. and piano. Apostrophe to thè intoxicating fragrance of lengendary olden times.
Notes by R. D. DARRELL
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