Schoenberg, "Pierrot Lunaire", Boston Globe article

[bluestateprommer]

In honor of the centenary of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, this article from the Boston Globe on the work and its subsequent influence and reception:

http://bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2012/06/02/ears-future-schoenberg-pierrot-lunaire/2RO6iTFxs5roBQNapMwlFM/story.html

Proms audiences get their chance this season at PCM 7: http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/...ugust-27/14292

[antongould]

Interesting, I wonder how many 100 years later have "....ears of the future"?

[Petrushka]

Interesting article, BSP, thanks for sharing. This was one centenary I'd missed so will make a mental note to play it on October 9, the actual centenary. I have two recordings, one by Sinopoli, the other from Boulez (1977, Sony).

Can anyone who knows the piece better than I do say which is the best recording out there?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Can anyone who knows the piece better than I do say which is the best recording out there?

A BaL a few years back (Arnold Whittall IIRC) plumped for the latest Boulez recording on DG: I don't have it. Jane Manning on a budget REGIS disc is very good.

But, CRIMINALLY, Schoenberg's own recording from 1940 doesn't seem to be available (last seen, I think, on CBS Masterworks). I don't know how legal/trustworthy DISCOGS is, but they have it as a free download.

[Quarky]

Anja Silja/ Craft on Naxos comes highly recommended.

[makropulos]

A BaL a few years back (Arnold Whittall IIRC) plumped for the latest Boulez recording on DG: I don't have it. Jane Manning on a budget REGIS disc is very good.

But, CRIMINALLY, Schoenberg's own recording from 1940 doesn't seem to be available (last seen, I think, on CBS Masterworks). I don't know how legal/trustworthy DISCOGS is, but they have it as a free download.

Given when it was made, that recording is out of copyright, so a free download is legit, I think. It's a really fascinating performance and I do agree that it should be made readily available again. There are used copies that aren't unreasonable:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pierrot-Lunaire-Schoenberg/dp/B000XHBPY0/ref=sr_1_27?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1338813994&sr=1-27

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Anja Silja/ Craft on Naxos comes highly recommended.

One of the ones I do have; deserves all plaudits.

[Roehre]

In honor of the centenary of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, this article from the Boston Globe on the work and its subsequent influence and reception:

http://bostonglobe.com/arts/music/20...lFM/story.html

Thanks BSP. For me the (alas correctly described as unavailable at the moment) prime performance is Schönberg's own 1942 recording. Craft/Silja on Naxos is a very good one IMO too.

[Petrushka]

Given when it was made, that recording is out of copyright, so a free download is legit, I think. It's a really fascinating performance and I do agree that it should be made readily available again. There are used copies that aren't unreasonable:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pierrot-Luna...813994&sr=1-27

I had no idea that AS had recorded this. Many thanks. Duly ordered!

[Serial_Apologist]

Having grappled with mature Schoenberg with great difficulty in my late 'teens, and read about "Pierrot Lunaire", I was extremely lucky in 1965 to pick up on spec for 10/6 the Saga mono coupling with Stravinsky's Dunbarton Oaks with Alice Howland (sprechtimme), Gilbert Kalish, Louise Burge, Abram Loft, Chester Milosovich and George Sopkin under Herbert Zipper. Always leaving much to be desired in the hi fi stakes, and now considerably worn, it remains a favourite interpretation and was my gateway into the advanced Schoenberg, from which I've never looked back.

Years later I picked up Elgar Howarth's early 1970s version of the work with the Nash Ensemble, and Cleo Laine making a more than valiant effort at sprechgesang in a plausible English translation which does genuine duty to the spirits of the work, both in the translation and Ms Laine's rendition.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I was extremely lucky in 1965 to pick up on spec for 10/6 the Saga mono coupling with Stravinsky's Dunbarton Oaks with Alice Howland (sprechtimme), Gilbert Kalish, Louise Burge, Abram Loft, Chester Milosovich and George Sopkin under Herbert Zipper. Always leaving much to be desired in the hi fi stakes, and now considerably worn, it remains a favourite interpretation and was my gateway into the advanced Schoenberg, from which I've never looked back.

- the first Schoenberg I ever heard, courtesy Blackburn Public Library ten years or so after you, S_A. I was so intrigued by these sounds,I made a copy by sticking a portable cassette recorder mic in front of one of the record player speakers - that's how I came to know the work! (Talk about "leaving much be desired in the hi fi stakes"! )

[Petrushka]

Schönberg's own 1942 recording.

For some reason there appears to be a discrepancy regarding the date of this recording. According to the discography on the Arnold Schoenberg website the recording was made on September 24 1940.

[Bryn]

For some reason there appears to be a discrepancy regarding the date of this recording. According to the discography on the Arnold Schoenberg website the recording was made on September 24 1940.

Perhaps it was first released in 1942. I have a version on LP somewhere but don't have the time to search it out at the moment. That may clarify the situation.

[makropulos]

Perhaps it was first released in 1942. I have a version on LP somewhere but don't have the time to search it out at the moment. That may clarify the situation.

The information I have is that it was made on 24-26 September 1940 in Los Angeles. Around the same time (a few weeks later, on 17 November 1940) Schoenberg conducted a broadcast performance in New York, and this, too, survives at least in part (it's in New York Public Library). There's an interesting article by Avior Byron comparing the recording and the broadcast, published in the Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland, vol. 2 (2006), pp. 69-91, available complete as a PDF online).

[Bryn]

Interesting read here:

http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.06.12.1/mto.06.12.1.byron_frames.html