Customer Reviews

Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire, Op 21; The Book of the Hanging Gardens, Op. 15

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This Schoenberg disc is worth having for the sake of Jan De Gaetani's singing, or shall we say musical vocalization. The Pierrot Lunaire is written for a Sprechstimme (or some would say Sprechgesang), meaning roughly somewhere between full singing and speech. There are not surprisingly many recordings of this work, as the vocal part is very tough to bring off, but the soloist here does as well as possible. There is almost a twisted cabaret style to the singing, as the composer had intended, not to mention a dark and somewhat neurotic undercurrent. The monodrama Erwartung takes this musical atmosphere even further. The ensemble playing is first class, and this is not easy music. The Book of the Hanging Gardens is a success too. This is a record to force yourself to listen to more than once, to stretch your horizons. The documentation is indispensable. Excellent sound, along with the packaging and presentation, complete with the expressionistic painting on the cover. Highly recommended.

I love this recording of Pierrot so much that there was a time when I listened to it pretty much on repeat the way people usually do with rock albums. If you've heard another recording of Pierrot and didn't like it (like that horrible Boulez one), do yourself a favor and buy this, and see what it's really supposed to sound like. I've heard this singing surpassed only by a live performance, and that had flaws in other ways. Get this, now, listen to the whole thing while following in the translation, and then, I dare you, tell me this isn't one of the greatest pieces of music ever written.

This is the recording that made me fall in love with 20th century classical music. Hundreds of CD's of modern music later, this one remains very close to my heart. Pierrot is scary, poignant, strident, and sometimes annoying--it's a masterpiece of exaggerated emotion. If God incarnated as a drag queen, this is what He'd sing.

The above words come from Igor Stravinsky describing his impressions of an early performance of _Pierrot Lunaire_, and given my own reaction to this masterpiece it is a fitting title. Composed in 1912, _Pierrot Lunaire_ (or, _Thrice-seven Songs from Albert Giraud's Pierrot Lunaire_) is a melodrama for voice and a small chamber group, consisting of piano, flute, piccolo, clarinet, bass clarinet, violin, viola, and cello. Each of the 21 parts uses different combinations of instruments along with the vocalist. The vocalist gives frightening life to the text of Giraud's poetry, using an esoteric technique called "Sprechgesang," something between speech and singing. It is recognized as viciously difficult to perform, requiring unqualified control of tone as the vocalist must momentarily touch upon each note before moving to the next. The vocal performance here stands as one of the best I've heard by anyone anywhere. There are three sections, with seven rondels each, and in each Schoenberg deploys colorful combinations of instruments and tonal color, with music often angular and jagged, to underscore the various states of emotional drama. It's unbelievably intense, wild, outlandish, and haunting, especially once you read the translation of the poetry to understand the meaning of each individual part.

Book of the Hanging Gardens - quite good, bordering on excellent. But this disc is all about this performance of _Pierrot lunaire_. Essential in every way.

all the reviews, there's not much I can add.
Of the 6 Pierrot's I've owned, this DeGaetani is the finest. The orch/conducting as well matches DeGaetani's superb artistry.
Here is the finest Pierrot ever recorded.

Jan DeGaetani has legendary technique, which is well suited to the interpretation of twentieth century music. Weisberg elicits top notch performances from the chamber ensemble. Interpretations are first rate. These recordings of Schoenberg are equaled by few and surpassed by none.

These are some of the best performances of Schoenberg's music I've ever heard live or on disc. Degaetani and Kalish's performance of the Book of The Hanging Gardens is astounding in it's clarity and amazing intensity. The recording of Pierrot Lunaire is full of the disturbing and dangerous texts more so for the fine playing of the ensemble under Arthur Weisberg. If anyone doesn't know Degaetani listening to these recordings will show that she was one of the finest singers of her generation.

These are the recordings of these pieces I'd like any intellegent young musician to hear first.

Much better than the Boulez '77 reconding and even more than the Boulez '97 recording with Christine Schafer, but not comparable with the earlier Boulez recording (and rendition) that I have on tape reacorded in the seventies from a friend's LP. I talked about this recording on my two reviews of the two Boulez recording available here, and I said that I don't know nothing about this except it's a Boulez one and it's earlier than the other two. I asked if someone, or maybe the specialists, knows if this my tape from LP recording is available on cd, and I asked to tell us. Because it's really worth it. Either on the side of reciter or on the side of instruments...