Onyx Classics proudly presents a new release marking the 150th anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg’s birth. For this tremendous milestone, soprano Claire Booth joins with Ensemble 360 to provide a unique programme which delves into Pierrot, a fictional character often associated with human vice, with an air of insouciance and innocence. Featured are works inspired by this devious and cunning character: Schumann’s Carnival (1835), Schoenberg’s 12 song cycle Pierrot Lunaire & Thea Musgrave’s Pierrot. Rounding out the programme are works by Amy Beach, Korngold, Debussy among others.

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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.

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Claire and Chris approach Modest Mussorgsky: Unorthodox Music in the spirit of a storyteller, tracing an arc of life from innocence to experience that is arranged across a prologue and four “scenes” – Nursery, Youthful Years, Marriage and Loneliness– taking their cue from the colourful tableaux of the composer’s operas.
Individual numbers from the great song cycles – Youthful Years, Nursery, Sunless, and Songs and Dances of Death – are juxtaposed with works from Mussorgsky’s more unorthodox output, all delivered by Claire and Chris with disarming affect.

“Operatic vividness and tremendous panache – A ‘cradle-to-grave songspiel’ describing the arc of a woman’s life is brilliantly conceived by soprano Booth and pianist Glynn… The whole thing is a joy” ★★★★★ Classical Albums of the Year – The Guardian

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Soprano Claire Booth and pianist Christopher Glynn trace an arc through Edvard Grieg’s Lyric Music, interspersing vocal miniatures with solo piano pieces that range in mood from bright, youthful innocence to shades of autumnal twilight.

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Claire Booth (soprano) Sue Bickley (mezzo-soprano) Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

RTF Classical

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Claire Booth (soprano), Christopher Glynn (piano)

“Booth and Glynn beautifully manage the contrasts between simplicity and immense sophistication that all these songs regularly provide; it makes a really engaging sequence”

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Performers include Claire Booth, Nathan Cole, Nicola Melville, Parker Quartet, Third Coast Percussion
Orchestra: Aurora Orchestra
Conductor: Nicholas Collon
Composer: Augusta Read-Thomas

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Performers include Claire Booth, Pamela Helen Stephen, Mark Padmore, Barnabás Kelemen
Orchestra: Hallé Orchestra
Conductor: Ryan Wigglesworth
Composer: Ryan Wigglesworth

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Performers include Claire Booth, Lucy Schaufer, Alexandra Wood, Huw Watkins, Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)
Orchestras: Aldeburgh World Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Conductors: Sir Mark Elder, Oliver Knussen
Composer: Charlotte Bray

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Performers include Claire Booth, Nicky Spence, Patricia Bardon, Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)
Composer: Jonathan Dove

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