This complete performance of Pierrot lunaire comprised the second half of the CSO’s Schoenberg Beyond the Score production (viewable here).

Vienna in the years leading up to the First World War was one of the most intellectually and artistically daring cities in Europe, the birthplace of Freud’s psychoanalysis, the symphonies of Mahler and the paintings of Klimt. In 1912, the young Arnold Schoenberg, who was already at the center of this ferment, composed his extraordinary “three times seven poems,” a miniature drama for one singer and five instruments. To its astonished first listeners, this eerily beautiful music seemed like no musical sounds that they had ever heard before.

Recorded at Orchestra Hall in February, 2012.

Cristian Macelaru, conductor
Kiera Duffy, soprano
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
Mathieu Dufour, flute, piccolo
J. Lawrie Bloom, clarinet, bass clarinet
Robert Chen, violin, viola
John Sharp, cello

Pierre-Laurent Aimard appears courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon.