Arnold Schönberg:
Gurrelieder (1900-1911)
Schönberg was attracted by Jens Peter Jacobsen's poem Songs of Gurre in 1899, and immediately began to work on a big-scale score over the text. Composed between 1900 and 1901, Schönberg was unable to finish its orchestration until 1911, which delayed the first performance of the huge work till February 1913, in Vienna. Oratorium divided in three parts, it makes use of an intensely post-romantic style close to the expressionism, and of a choral and orchestral mass of inmense proportions.

Radio-Symphonie-Orchester, Berlin
Chor der St.Hedwigs-Kathedrale, Berlin
Städtischer Musikverein zu Düsseldorf
Conductor: Riccardo Chailly

Siegfried Jerusalem (Waldemar)
Susan Dunn (Tove)
Brigitte Fassbaender (Waldtaube)
Hermann Becht (Bauer)
Peter Haage (Klaus)
Hans Hotter (Narrator)

DECCA/LONDON 430321-2 [2 CDs] / 100' 54"

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