Gustav Mahler:
- Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (arr. Schoenberg)
Songs of a Wayfarer.
- Chamber Arrangements
On this CD, Trevor Pinnock conducts the Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble in interesting chamber arrangements of compositions, ranging from Mahler to Zemlinksy.
This recording is the third in the series, which sees Trevor and the Academy perform works, which are retrospectively reigniting Schoenberg’s vision of performing chamber reductions of symphonic repertoire.
We hear the following works:
Busoni:
- Berceuse élégiaque, Op. 42, arr. Stein
Mahler:
- Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (4 songs, complete), arr. Schoenberg, with
Gareth Brynmor John (baritone)
Wagner:
Zemlinsky:
- Songs (6) to poems by Maurice Maeterlinck, Op. 13, arr. Austin, with Katie Bray (mezzo)
Performed by the Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble, Trevor Pinnock conducting.
The works on this recording transport us to a period of vast musical change: In Mahler we hear nostalgia combined with modernism; with Wagner, we hear the sunset of Romanticism; with Zemlinsky we hear the images of old Vienna; and in all, the musical emotions distilled into non-symphonic forces.
Arnold Schoenberg’s own arrangement of Mahler’s intensely personal song cycle is followed by Erwin Stein’s arrangement of Busoni’s landmark composition “Berceuse élégiaque”.
Specifically commissioned for this chamber series is Christopher Austin’s arrangement of Zemlinsky’s evocative “Sechs Gesänge”, which enjoys its premiere recording here.
Closing the disc is Wagner’s infamous Siegfried Idyll.
The arrangements for chamber forces serve to illuminate the original scores, and the clarity achieved in these performances expose revealing new insights.
Trevor Pinnock is recognized worldwide as a harpsichordist and conductor who pioneered performance on historical instruments with his own orchestra, The English Concert.
Here is Trevor Pinnock with the English Concert in vocal and instrumental works by Dowland, Handel, Monteverdi, and Vivaldi:
Tags: Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Schoenberg, Trevor Pinnock