Schoenberg: Five Pieces, Cello Concerto, Brahms Quartet Transcription

 

This is Schoenberg for people who hate Schoenberg. The Five Pieces for Orchestra, far from sounding radical or appallingly dissonant as they must have in 1909, now impress us as impressionistic, atmospheric, and evocative. The loony Cello Concerto after Monn and the Brahms Piano Quartet are both modern classics in the art of transcription, not to mention one composer's very strongly personalized view of his predecessors.

Robert Craft's performances are uniformly impressive, particularly in the Cello Concerto. Its appallingly difficult solo part is handled with consummate intelligence and virtuosity by Fred Sherry, and the accompaniment hardly could be clearer or cleaner in texture. The Brahms is very good too, surpassed only by Craft himself in his earlier Sony recording with the Chicago Symphony. This newcomer, however, does enjoy much better sonics, and at the Naxos price makes an excellent bargain. --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

“A good selection of Schoenberg works here receive excellent performances on this Naxos release under Robert Craft’s expert direction.” --Musicweb International

Remembrance

“John Neschling draws convincing performances from his São Paolo forces. Stephen Bronk narrates the Schoenberg clearly; Sharon Bezaly and Vadim Gluzman are eloquent instrumental soloists. …Rodrigo Esteves is a completely convincing cantorial baritone.” --BBC Music Magazine

"The Sala São Paolo opened in 1999; judging from this disc, it is a spectacular success. Highly recommended!" --Fanfare

The disc opens and closes with the works by two Austrian composers forced to flee Europe because of their Jewish heritage. Schoenberg composed his setting of the Jewish prayer Kol Nidre in 1938 for the Los Angeles synagogue, and in 1944 the same congregation commissioned a new setting of Psalm 92 from Erich Zeisl. Soon after the commission Zeisl received the tragic news of the death of his father and several friends in the Holocaust.

Framed by these two vocal works are two purely instrumental ones: Bernstein’s Halil (from the Hebrew word for flute) was dedicated to Yadin Tannenbaum, a young Israeli soldier and flautist who was killed in 1973 in his tank in Sinai, while Ernest Bloch wrote his Baal Shem in memory of his mother. The vibrant music is performed by the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and conductor John Neschling (incidentally Schoenberg’s grandson).

Schoenberg, Webern, Berg: The String Quartet and the Voice

“The extreme refinement and minutely focused intensity, in recordings to match, make the Webern a singularly beautiful, if somewhat unsettling experience...Marie-Nicole Lemieux's voluptuous pianissimo is perfect for this paradoxically remote-revealing music. She also makes a good case for the vocal version of the finale of Berg's Lyric Suite...as for the Schoenberg: it's good to be reminded how much beauty there is in this astonishing score.” --BBC Music Magazine, August 2011 *****/***

“The Diotima are perfectly at home in this music, cooler than some quartets in the Schoenberg and Berg but wonderful at realising all the teeming detail in both works, and the microscopic gestures of the Webern.” --The Guardian, 4th March 2011 ****

“[Lemieux] is darkly eloquent with the long-suppressed Baudelaire text embedded in the extraordinary finale of Berg’s Lyric Suite.” --Sunday Times, 6th March 2011 ***

“I certainly wouldn't argue for the vocal version [of the Lyric Suite] as a permanent replacement...But in a performance of the whole work as richly characterised and technically assured as this one by the Quatuor Diotima, I'm happy to make an exception. The quartets by Webern and Schoenberg are done with equal flair, and in Schoenberg's Second there's a rare chance to hear the peerless Sandrine Piau in post-Wagnerian vein” --Gramophone Magazine, August 2011

MP3 320 · 141 MB