Following on from in-depth studies of Grieg, Percy Grainger and Mussorgsky, in recordings that intersperse those composers’ song repertoire and solo piano works, “that most questing, resourceful and intelligent of sopranos” (Daily Telegraph), Claire Booth returns with pianist Christopher Glynn for their next release, Expressionist Music: A Schoenberg Songbook, to be released on Orchid Classics on 24 May 2024.
In the partnership’s own words:
“As a song duo, we like something to chew on. And not much in the repertoire is chewier than the songs of Arnold Schoenberg. With their dark beauty, primal intensity, profound sensuality and searing honesty, they are unaccountably neglected by singers and pianists, many of whom turn readily to Strauss, Mahler and Wolf – even Zemlinsky and Korngold – but rarely open the Schoenberg volume. Because the inescapable truth is that a century on, Schoenberg is still not box office. But for anyone who believes that Schoenberg is cold, cerebral and unapproachable, we can only say this: try the songs. Having explored every single one of them (as we did over a few intense days one summer), it’s impossible not to be struck by just how much magnificent music there is to discover, and that is what we have tried to celebrate in this recital. Song was, above all, the medium in which Schoenberg found his voice. Time and again, in the first third of his career, it was poetry that fired his creativity and led him onto new musical ground. Here, then, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth, is a recital of our favourite Schoenberg songs, arranged in groups to correspond loosely with some of his most striking paintings. As one critic has written, ‘Schoenberg’s music and Schoenberg’s pictures: that will knock your ears and eyes out at the same time.’ We hope listeners enjoy the fierce originality, soul-baring intensity and high emotional voltage of this music as much as we have.”
Performing internationally for over twenty years, Claire Booth and Christopher Glynn are established as one of today’s most innovative and imaginative song duos. In recent years, their trailblazing programming has also been captured on disc in series of acclaimed single-composer surveys on Orchid Classics. Folk Music celebrated the maverick genius of Percy Grainger and was credited with spearheading a revival of interest in a much-neglected composer. ‘It’s the sparkle they give,’ said BBC Radio 3’s Record Review, ‘it’s the care, it’s the attention to detail, the love of the music and the incredible characters that they manage to draw out of every song.’ Lyric Music was dedicated to the music of Edvard Grieg and singled out by BBC Music Magazine as ‘revelatory’, while Gramophone noted ‘Booth and Glynn are on fire here’. Their third album, Unorthodox Music traced a ‘cradle to grave’ arc through the songs and piano pieces of Modest Mussorgsky, described by the Guardian as ‘brilliantly conceived’ and by the Irish Times as ‘a vivid treasure trove of vivid storytelling’. Their latest album Expressionist Music is a deep dive into the music of Arnold Schoenberg, celebrating his 150th birthday with typically intrepid performances and inventive programming.
British soprano Claire Booth has been widely acclaimed for her “radiant, rapturous, wonderfully nuanced performances” and voice of “piercing purity [and] luscious richness” (The Scotsman). She is renowned for her breadth of repertoire, and for the vitality and musicianship that she brings to the operatic stage and concert platform, with a versatility that encompasses repertoire spanning from Monteverdi and Handel, through Rossini, Berg and Britten, to a fearless commitment to the music of the present day. Highlights of her 2023/24 season include performances of Berg’s Seven Early Songs with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Mozart Concert Arias with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Ostrava Janacek Festival in collaboration with Jessica Cottis, and her first performances of Strauss’ Four Last Songs with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie and Sinfonica de Galicia under Jonathon Heyward’s direction. She sings the lead role of Maria Yudina in a performance and recording of Joe Cutler’s chamber opera ‘Sonata for Broken Fingers’ with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and maintains her regular connections with Wigmore Hall, in a memorial concert for Sir Harrison Birtwistle with the Nash Ensemble, and Britten Pears Arts, returning once again as course director for the Composition and Performance Residency, and performing one of her signature pieces, Schoenberg’s iconic Pierrot Lunaire, at the Aldeburgh Festival.
