Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra is a warhorse of modern music, performed and recorded with regularity. Robert Craft's rendition of Schoenberg's accessible 1909 Expressionist masterpiece is as good as any, and is at times quite spirited (hard not to be, given the work's bombastic character), especially during the opening section, "Vorgefuhle" (Premonitions). "Vergangenes" (The Past), is also notable, offered here with real delicacy and beauty. The true value of this disc, however, lies in the less-well known offerings ...
Read More
Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra is a warhorse of modern music, performed and recorded with regularity. Robert Craft's rendition of Schoenberg's accessible 1909 Expressionist masterpiece is as good as any, and is at times quite spirited (hard not to be, given the work's bombastic character), especially during the opening section, "Vorgefuhle" (Premonitions). "Vergangenes" (The Past), is also notable, offered here with real delicacy and beauty. The true value of this disc, however, lies in the less-well known offerings, including A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46 and Herzegewächse, Op. 20.A Survivor from Warsaw, narrated here by Simon Callow, is an interesting and important work, strongly evocative and dramatic, though Schoenberg's spoken text, describing a man who escapes being massacred by German soldiers, is occasionally forced and unnatural (Callow makes a good effort, but ultimately the narration is too awkward to be taken seriously). Craft manages to capture the essence of the work on this...
Read Less
