Page 296 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

has performed Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire since taking part in a
performance directed by Pierre Boulez shortly after she left college and Pierrot
Lunaire features on another disc with Ensemble 360 that is being released on
Onyx Classics in September, and she will be performing the work several
times including at the Aldeburgh Festival [see Tony's review]. But her musical
life extends beyond Schoenberg and this year she is also performing new
works by Zoë Martlew and Helen Grime which Claire has commissioned.

Schoenberg's song-writing spans much of his career from the early 1890s to
the 1930s, so they vary in style from his late romantic works to free atonality to
twelve-tone. In Expressionist Music, Claire and Christopher Glynn perform
songs from his Opus 2 (1899), Opus 3 (1899/1903), Brettl-Lieder (1901),
Opus 6 (1903/1905), Opus 12 (1906), Opus 14 (1907/1908), Opus 48 (1933)
as well as something from Gurrelieder (1901/1911).

As she points out, some of these songs are known and occasionally
performed, but the name of the composer and his reputation seems to prevent
performers and promoters from exploring further. With his 150th anniversary,
it feels super-important to Claire to be performing his music and she
confessed herself somewhat surprised that festivals have not been
showcasing his music more.

Her and Christopher Glynn's booklet note explains their thinking, "the
inescapable truth is that a century on, Schoenberg is still not box office. But
for anyone who believes that Schoenberg is cold, cerebral and
unapproachable, we can only say this: try the songs. Having explored every
single one of them (as we did over a few intense days one summer), it’s
impossible not to be struck by just how much magnificent music there is to
discover, and that is what we have tried to celebrate in this recital."

Her previous collaborations with pianist Christopher Glynn have involved well-
known composers whose vocal works have rather slipped under the radar, so
Grieg's songs are far less known than his piano music and orchestral pieces,
whilst Mussorgsky is better known for his big orchestral works, and besides
which this disc gave Claire the chance to sing things like the Songs and
Dances of Death which are generally seen as the preserve of male (mainly
bass) singers. Schoenberg felt like the obvious next step. Schoenberg is, of
course, no unknown but lots of musicians and promoters have decided where
he fits in the canon and which of his works are programmable. She recalls that
at music college, there was so much other repertoire that his songs were not
done, and most young singers would not have considered taking Second
Viennese School lieder to lieder class (Claire did!)