Schönberg - Pierrot lunaire for speaker and orchestra

‘I confess: the occupation with scores of the Second Viennese School gives me a special pleasure. My experiences with the reduced versions of Schönberg's Erwartung and Berg's Violin Concerto for Ensemble have led me to deal with the reverse idea of enlargement. That's why I chose Pierrot lunaire.

My main goal was to achieve the sound of Schönberg's scores, so that listeners and performers do not think of an arrangement, but of another original version of this wonderful work.

For this purpose I left all instrumental solos in the respective instruments, also the chamber music gesture has been preserved as much as possible. Large tutti passages, as is usual in orchestral works, are rarely present. The spirit and character of the individual pieces should also be retained. To achieve this, I tried to use the orchestra as a gigantic chamber ensemble. The piano part of the original has migrated completely into the orchestra and has thus obtained sharper contours, with much more contrasting lines, and the chordal combinations are partly, differently illuminated. Even if the listener will find something new and different, Schönberg has remained Schönberg.

I started to work in the summer of 2016 and moved on from piece to piece, immersing myself even deeper into Schönberg's world.

The special text by Giraud/Hartleben was additional motivation for the work, as well as the key to deciphering the secrets of Schönberg, the ingenious master who has overtaken himself for decades.’

(Faradsch Karaew)