Page 258 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

10 June 2024

Claire Booth on Schoenberg

by Katherine Cooper

Barring a couple of lively
performances of the cabaret-
infused Brettl-Lieder and an
unforgettable account of the song-
cycle The Book of the Hanging
Gardens from Christian Gerhaher
and Gerold Huber a few years ago,
chances to hear Schoenberg's songs
in concert have been few and far
between for me over the course of
my recital-going career. It was with
great pleasure, then, that I greeted
Claire Booth and Christopher
Glynn's recent deep-dive into the
composer's song output on Orchid
Classics, themed around a selection
of Schoenberg's Expressionist
paintings and described as
'immaculate' by The Guardian a
couple of weeks ago.

In between preparations for her performance of Judith Weir's mini one-woman opera King
Harald's Saga at Aldeburgh last night, Claire spoke to me about how there's more to Schoenberg
than serialism, why his songs are still receiving scant attention in his 150th anniversary year, how
his paintings can shed new light on the music, and her long history with Pierrot Lunaire (which
she has recorded for release in September)...

As someone who goes to a lot of song-recitals, I could still probably count the number of
Schoenberg sets I've heard live on the fingers of one hand...is it fair to say that a lot of his
vocal music is underappreciated?

Chris Glynn and I have always been interested in highlighting and exploring repertoire by
composers who are not so well known for their vocal output, and Schoenberg definitely falls into
that category. People perhaps know the Brettl-Lieder, and the songs from the early part of his
career (Op. 2 to Op. 8) occasionally get an outing at festivals who want to include something
from the Second Viennese School without frightening the horses: of course some of his early
songs sound a bit like Mahler or Wolf because he was born out of that era, but there’s no need to