This is an admirable performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, by the New York New Music Ensemble. Phyllis Bryn-Julson's soprano is perfectly poised on that tightrope between song and speech that has befuddled many inte... more »rpreters of the work. Another satisfying aspect to the recording is the care taken by conductor Robert Black in responding to the order and proportion in Schoenberg's score as well as to its eerie emotionalism. Stravinsky's Octet rounds out the disc in an adequate reading. --Joshua Cody« less
This is an admirable performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, by the New York New Music Ensemble. Phyllis Bryn-Julson's soprano is perfectly poised on that tightrope between song and speech that has befuddled many interpreters of the work. Another satisfying aspect to the recording is the care taken by conductor Robert Black in responding to the order and proportion in Schoenberg's score as well as to its eerie emotionalism. Stravinsky's Octet rounds out the disc in an adequate reading. --Joshua Cody