Schönberg - Pierrot Lunaire (Bel Air Classique)

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The 2011 Salzburg Festival hosted pianist Mitsuko Uchida, actress Barbara Sukowa, and a hand-picked international ensemble, who performed Schoenberg's 'Pierrot Lunaire' for its centennial with exemplary energy and finesse, acclaimed as a real occasion by audience and critics alike.

Along with the live concert recording, a documentary film was made during the rehearsals at Schloss Elmau in Salzburg on the work’s historical, contextual and musical exegesis. Mitsuko Uchida and the other musicians speak of the eclectic scoring for their instruments and the great emotions they constantly encountered during the performance, while Nuria Schoenberg Nono and Lawrence Schoenberg present a variety of original materials from the time when 'Pierrot' was written, retelling how Schönberg was commissioned to compose it in 1912 by elocutionist Albertine Zehme of Berlin. Schoenberg’s now-famous expressive device of Sprechgesang and specific instrumentation for each poem characterises the 21 poems in previously unimaginable splendour.