Pierrot Portraits
Claire Booth (soprano)
Ensemble 360
rec. 2023/24 Champs Hill, Pulborough, Sussex, UK
Reviewed as a 24/192 download
Onyx 4246 [75]
Pierrot, the archetype all-in-white drawn from the world of the Commedia dell’Arte that flourished in Renaissance Italy, has long been a source of artistic inspiration, from the French Rococo painter Watteau to the more popular figure of David Bowie.
For music lovers of a Classical persuasion it is, however, surely Arnold Schoenberg’s freely atonal setting of Belgian poet Albert Giraud’s Pierrot Lunaire (Pierrot in the Moonlight) that surely looms largest in the imagination in any year, let alone in this, Schoenberg’s 150th anniversary. Over one hundred years from its 1912 premiere the work remains a defining statement, not only of early 20th Century musical modernism but of the unique cultural entrepôt that was Vienna just before the outbreak of the Great War.
Ingeniously though, for this disc, Ensemble 360 and soprano Claire Booth (something of a specialist in this type of repertoire) have marked the Austrian composer’s sesquicentennial by not placing Pierrot Lunaire in the context of Schoenberg’s oeuvre, as most often seen, but in that of other musical Pierrot inspirations. The companions chronologically range from Robert Schumann to Thea Musgrave, with each of them revealing more about the character itself, and how other composers have drawn their own unique musical colours on Pierrot’s canvas.
This is evident in the songs, which comprise half of Pierrot Lunaire’s companions. They are drawn from a contrasting suite of 19th and 20th Century styles and moods, from Joseph Marx’s playful Pierrot Dandy to Max Kowalski’s more moody ‘Nordpolfahrt’ from his Songs of Pierrot. All the songs are sung with great panache by Claire Booth, with Tim Horton showing his tremendous versatility on this disc appearing as accompanist, soloist and chamber musician.
Of the non-vocal pieces, while Tim Horton superbly performs Schumann’s ‘Pierrot’ from his early piano work Carnaval as the album’s opener and Amy Beach’s evocative Valse Amoureuse, it’s the two chamber pieces that stand out. Firstly, there’s Thea Musgrave’s Pierrot, a trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano representing the triumvirate of characters in the Commedia, Pierrot, Columbine and the Harlequin. Each player, Robert Plane on clarinet, Benjamin Nabarro on violin and Tim Horton on piano plays their role to perfection and gives this wonderfully energetic and characterful piece the best possible advocacy. The arrangement of ‘Pierrot’s Tanzlied’ for cello & piano from Korngold’s opera Die tote Stadt features the gorgeously lush cello sound of Gemma Rosefield, and functions as a romantic amuse bouche immediately preceding the modernist main course.
As for the main event itself, Claire Booth, in her hugely erudite program note (with full text and translations) is quick to remark that the piece was commissioned by Albertine Zehme, an actress and singer – which surely highlights the importance of mastering ‘Sprechstimme’ (speak-singing) and finding an ideal balance between the two. Likewise, a performance needs to be alert to both the avant-garde musical material and the text, which at times can feel like a demented and somewhat disturbing cabaret. Here, Claire Booth is entirely successful, managing to declaim the text in an incredibly engaging yet completely musical way. Adept at altering her voice to get the best out of the text in, for example, the wonderful sotto voce at the end of ‘The Dandy’, the musical tears of ‘Madonna’ or the laughter of ‘Prayer to Pierrot’ it’s a role she truly inhabits, as one must, but at the same time maintains an incredible technical control over the material. No mean feat, but one which Claire Booth manages with great skill to bring this wonderfully weird and remarkable piece to life. The instrumental parts are also handled with great care and skill by Ensemble 360, with their experience playing together as an ensemble giving huge dividends in this most complex instrumental score.
This is a superb entry point, therefore, into Pierrot’s world for the uninitiated and also a rendition of Pierrot Lunaire which stands alongside classic accounts of the cycle by Christine Schäfer and Phyllis Bryn-Julson, and more recently the hugely extroverted Patricia Kopatchinskaja in her unique account from 2021.
Just as the Pierrot-ification of members of Ensemble 360 and Claire Booth on the wonderful cover brings the players to life, the musicians give life to Pierrot himself on this brilliantly conceived and executed disc.
Paul Thomas
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Contents
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Carnaval, Op. 9: Pierrot (1834)
Joseph Marx (1882–1964)
Pierrot Dandy (1910)
Poldowski (Régine Wieniawski) (1879–1932)
Columbine (1913)
Thea Musgrave b. 1928
Pierrot (1985)
Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
Pierrot L.30 (1881)
Amy Beach (1867–1944)
Les Rêves de Colombine Op.65 III. Valse amoureuse (1907)
Max Kowalski (1882–1956)
12 Gedichte aus ‘Pierrot lunaire’ Op.4 No.7 Nordpolfahrt (1934)
Erich Korngold (1897-1957)
Die tote Stadt: Tanzlied des Pierrot (1920)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Pierrot Lunaire, Op.21 (1912)
