Given his affinity for these three composers, it seems only fitting that Craft is recording their complete works for Naxos Records. The first four CDs of the Robert Craft Collection have recently been released; two are devoted to the music of Schoenberg, one to Stravinsky, and one to Webern.

Schoenberg -- Gurre-Lieder
This two-disc set includes a complete recording of one of Schoenberg's largest works, Gurre-Lieder. Scored for a massive orchestra, vocal soloists and chorus, this 1911 piece epitomizes the post-Mahlerian romanticism of Schoenberg's early compositional style. Those who associate his music exclusively with atonality will be surprised by the long stretches of lush orchestration and sumptuous harmonies found here. Craft leads the Philharmonia orchestra in an ardent and often affecting performance.

To get over the large orchestra, soloists of Wagnerian vocal proportions are required. Not all of the cast on the Naxos recording are ideal; tenor Stephen O'Mara is sometimes a bit too wooden in his phrasing. However, soprano Melanie Diener and mezzo soprano Jennifer Lane are particularly fine, combining beautiful tone with considerable musicality. David Wilson-Johnson's ringing baritone is an appealing addition to the proceedings, while speaker Ernst Haefliger (formerly a considerably distinguished lieder tenor) renders the Part III melodrama with great flair.


Schoenberg -- Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, Lied der Waltaube, The Book of the Hanging Gardens, Suite for Piano (Opus 25)
The second volume of the Craft collection features an assortment of pieces from various stages of Schoenberg's career. The Concerto for String Quartet is one of Schoenberg's most prominent dalliances with neoclassicism. Composed in 1933, it is a trope on Handel's Concerto for Strings and Continuo, significantly elaborating and expanding the earlier work. For a lesser composer, messing about with this delightful baroque concerto would seem heretical, but Schoenberg manages to show his reverence for a great predecessor while simultaneously morphing the material into his own, with many flourishes of orchestration and changes in emphasis along the way.

"Lied der Waltaube", which originally appeared in Gurre-Lieder, is presented here in a chamber arrangement; once again, Jennifer Lane is a sterling mezzo soprano soloist. Lane, joined by pianist Christopher Oldfather, also does a fine job with Book of the Hanging Gardens, Schoenberg's early song cycle, an expressionist composition that presages the dark visions of Pierrot Lunaire. Oldfather also performs Schoenberg's first set of twelve-tone pieces, the Suite for Piano (Opus 25). The combination of movements based on binary form baroque dances, which are often more titular than audible, with the composer's explorations of the twelve tone technique, proves to be a fascinating juxtaposition. Oldfather performs the Suite with incisive phrasing and propulsive rhythm, accentuating the acerbic nature of the gestural and harmonic language and pulling off the piece's considerable technical demands with aplomb. Also included is a brief recorded conversation between Craft and Schoenberg from 1949. It references his early career as a painter, his advice to young composers, and the important lessons to be learned from music of the past -- quite an apt talk to pair with a recording of the Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra.


Stravinsky -- Oedipus Rex and Les Noces
Written in 1927, Oedipus Rex is one of Stravinsky's best known compositions from his middle, neoclassical period. It is a tremendously powerful work, scored for speaker, soloists, male chorus and orchestra. Craft paces this performance with urgency, eliciting impressive playing from the Philharmonia orchestra. Particularly engaging is the Simon Joly Chorale, who render the choral portions with rhythmic zest and authoritative gravity. Edward Fox is an effective narrator, while Wilson-Johnson is an excellent Creon.

The performance of Les Noces is equally fine. The Russian folk melodies and dance rhythms which inhabit this 1923 composition so thoroughly are given an appealing and muscular immediacy in this performance, buoyed by a zesty barrage from the Tristan Fry Percussion Ensemble. Both soprano Alison Wells and tenor Martyn Hill are standout soloists. It's interesting to hear these works side by side, as they show both ends of Stravinsky's expressive range. Oedipus, with its cold and acerbic language, stands in stark contrast to the ebullient warmth of Les Noces, yet both are compositional masterpieces in their own right.


Webern -- Symphony, Six Pieces, Concerto for Nine Instruments, et cetera
My favorite of the first four Craft CDs is this Webern recording, chock full of the Second Viennese School composer's engaging miniatures. Fascinated with Renaissance polyphony (Webern did a dissertation on early music composer Heinrich Isaac) as well as twelve tone techniques, Webern is a study in contrasts. On the one hand, his works are filled with rigorously structured counterpoint, often with canonic imitation, which would seem to be a glance backward. The same pieces, however, exhibit forward-thinking usage of the twelve-tone method, organizing the rhythm, articulation, and dynamics in methodical ways that reference the music's twelve-tone design. This set the stage for post-War European composers, such as Boulez and Stockhausen, to turn to integral serialism.

This contrast between counterpoint and pointillism is played out in the Symphony, Op. 21. While it is scored sparingly, and is nowhere near as long as a Beethoven (or even a Mozart) symphony, by Webernian standards, this ten minute work for orchestra is a "large piece". It employs many of Webern's compositional obsessions: palindromes, klangfarbenmelodie, canons, et cetera. The Craft performance is wonderful to hear, as it clearly brings out so many details that are glossed over in other recordings. Kudos, too, to Naxos for the disc's vivid sound.

The Concerto for Nine Instruments is another pointillistic, although considerably more punctilious, work; it is also given a revealing and well prepared reading. The Five Canons for Soprano and Two Clarinets are difficult little pieces, but soprano Jennifer Welch-Babidge and clarinetists Charles Neidich and Michael Lowenstern perform the angular excursions and difficult ensemble coordination required by this work with seeming ease. Christopher Oldfather's rendition of the Op. 27 Piano Variations is carefully phrased and impeccably nuanced in its presentation of a multitude of soft dynamic shadings. The disc is even topped off with some Webern arrangements of German dances by nineteenth century composer Franz Schubert. While the common practice harmonic language of these pieces seems shocking after all of the post-tonality that has come before, Webern's arrangements impart his characteristic economy in witty versions of these appealing chestnuts.

-- Christian Carey