Erika Sziklay: 'Pierrot Lunaire' •

For a long time, this Hungaraton LP from the early '70s has been my favorite "Pierrot". Erika Sziklay seems to embody the part perfectly – not too cool, not too coy, neither girl nor boy. And her 'Pierrot', while moonstruck and clearly drunk on the night air, hits every note. A good part of the unique beauty of these songs is how wayward Pierrot is perfectly integrated with his tiny pit band. The uncanny mood of the music depends on the instruments and singer being one. Would Schoenberg have taken such sweet care to imprison Pierrot inside a nightmare latticework of canons and free imitation, giving his instruments free rein to alternately mock and cradle and impersonate him, only to allow the singer to hit whatever notes she pleased? Pierrot's predicament is that this dandified night music insists on being followed to the smallest workaday detail. Edward Steuermann, pianist at the 1912 premiere of "Pierrot", very nearly quit in disgust over Albertine Zehme's approximate pitch in rehearsals. Too often, Schoenberg's request for sprechstimme leads to 'Cabaret'-style decadence of the silliest sort (lots of drunken glissandi); how much stranger is Sziklay's sober sparring with the instruments – as in dreams, it is the rational, least fantastic details that linger so disturbingly the following morning.

The flip side is even more impressive in its way: two of Webern's most challenging sets of chamber songs, 'Zwei Lieder' Op 8 and the punishing 'Funf canons', Op 16. And most surprising of all, the first and second 'Improvisations on Mallarmé' of Pierre Boulez – here, as throughout, the Budapest Chamber Ensemble, conducted by András Mihaly, is more than equal to the challenge, and the percussionists and harpist come equipped with some truly-individual sounding Eastern European instruments.

As it turns out, this recording is pretty well-known. It's on CD (if the clicks and pops are a nuisance, order a copy); even though I had never heard of Sziklay, it seems she has her fans. To add a little something individual to my 'needledrop', I've thrown in a couple of very late, very short Liszt songs not on the original LP. They are taken from a 3-LP Hungaraton collection of Liszt lieder. Erika Sziklay is joined by Györgys Miklós on piano in 'Einst' (1879) and 'Verlassen' (1880). The segue into the Webern is surprisingly natural.

The LINK is HERE