Search - Schoenberg, Silja, Philharmonic Orch :: Schoenberg: Transfigured Night / Erwartung, Vol. 6

This disc is Volume VI of conductor Robert Craft's ongoing Schoenberg series for Koch International. It contains the work that launched Schoenberg's career and a 1909 vocal work, Erwartung (or Expectation), that fulfills all the promise of Schoenberg's new vision for modern music. The performances here are dazzling, especially in Transfigured Night. This is the 1943 revised version for string orchestra, and Craft's handling of it is masterly. The work itself has moods and moments that actually seem to bury 19th-century German Romanticism, especially that of Mahler and Richard Strauss. More dynamic is Craft's handling of Erwartung, a "monodrama" for soprano and large orchestra. Craft himself provides the booklet notes detailing the rugged sophistication of Schoenberg's writing in Erwartung. It's quite a revelation. Highly recommended. --Paul Cook