Customer Reviews

Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ms Shelton and the De Capo Players really are superb, but it's a shame the Cleo Lane RCA (Red Seal LRL1 5058) recording is out of print. Ms Shelton's voice is a pure and shimmering liquid and the De Capo enunciate sounds in Pierrot I have never heard before in recording or in live performances--it's just a beautiful recording, and it's worth having for these reasons alone; but I can't get that vast and visual smokey range of Cleo Lane's voice out of my head. Jonathan Dunsby in his book on Pierrot writes: "-a Pierrot sung by a woman who always tries to hit the exact pitch at least at the beginning of each note is hardly the same work in experience . . . as a Pierrot in which the Sprechstimme swoops and glides with no hard reference to the notated points of absolute pitch (which is, technically, a lot easier to do if the singer does not have 'perfect ptitch')." I don't know if Ms Lane has/had(?) perfect pitch but her performance drunkenly swoops and glides. The two at times are completely different Pierrot's. And even though Ms Shelton sings in English as well, at times it still sounds German. (That's part of another issue, i.e. works in translation. I think more is gained by doing it.) By all means get this version, but by all means, find some way to hear the Cleo Lane; she creates a palpable and visceral incarnation.

This recording may be the finest ever made of this work. Schoenberg's music may not be everyone's favorite, but this rendering of Pierrot Lunaire is extremely well performed, expressive and highly musical.

Any lesser recording of Schoenberg hides behind the intellectual nature of the composer's methods. These performers do not allow themselves to be bound by the notes on the page -- they turn this difficult music into an opportunity to articulate their clear vision of everything Schoenberg was trying to say.

To enjoy this recording, listen to it closely, follow the words in the libretto, and let your imagination float to join that of the performers.

For decades spoil sports like "denisdiderot" below have been attacking Schoenberg's 12 tone system, saying, for example, that his music has no relation to "natural acoustics" and to the way "human beings make sense of sound". Well, last I checked, I'm a human being, one who happens to love this music, and I join musicians and music enthusiasts around the globe in praise of Schoenberg's work. The music of a "mediocre musical talent" doesn't last 50 years after his death. A talentless hack is forgotten. Schoenberg hasn't been forgotten and never will be. I dare say, though the real Denis Diderot is certainly remembered, the person below using Diderot's name as an alias will be forgotten shortly after his own death. Schoenberg will live on in the hearts and minds of musicians and music lovers everywhere as he does today.

Schoenberg's music is not for everyone, but then there's a lot in music that isn't for everyone. Try to accept that, though you may not connect with this composer, there are many who honestly do, and you may be missing something.

the music contained on this cd is proof enough in and of itself that Arnold Schoenberg was a mediocre musical talent, and turned to composing in an alienist atonal style only after he could plainly see that he could not compete on tonal musical grounds with the likes of strauss, pfitzner, schreker, ravel, debussy, and the like. the man craved attention and success, and most of all, "historical significance" for himself, and therefore devised a system of composing that purposefully could not be understood, thus setting himself up as a pretended misunderstood "genius" in the romantic sense, and claiming that anyone who cried foul regarding his music was simply not sophisticated enough to comprehend his noise. Then he created a rigid mathematical system of organizing tones with no relation whatsoever to natural acoustics or the way human beings make sense of sound. If his ludicrous communistic regimentation of musical tones is not enough to prove that Schoenberg was a musical mediocrity at best, or incompetent at worst, then just listen to the garbage contained on this cd for confirmation.