Anthony Hart writes about the Ensemble Télémaque’s and Brigitte Peyré’s contribution to this year’s International Spring Orchestra Festival.

The Ensemble Télémaque.

Discovering Schoenberg was the title of a recital given by the Ensemble Télémaque, together with soprano Brigitte Peyré under the direction of Raol Lay.

The concert opened with Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. In this work the soprano acts as a narrator who delivers the poems in the Sprechstimme style. Schoenberg arranged 21 of the poems by the Belgian poet, Albert Giraud.

Part I introduces Pierrot in his lonely, somewhat surreal world. Part II grows more sinister, dominated by death and terror, while Part III ends with Pierrot’s return to the world of commedia dell’arte.

The work is scored for a chamber ensemble with five members playing eight instruments. Each of the melodramas introduces a different combination of instruments.

Schoenberg was also known for arranging other composers’ works to be performed by smaller ensembles. Following Pierrot Lunaire, the ensemble performed Schoenberg’s setting of Notturno by Ferruccio Busoni .

The final work presented was Schoenberg’s setting of Mahler’s song cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer). There is a subtle connection between this and the last work, as it was Gustave Mahler who had conducted the first performance of Busoni’s work in its original form and was the last concert Mahler gave.

The words are Mahler’s own, and tell of a young man’s rejection by his beloved. The first movement is entitled Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht (When my sweetheart is married) and the text discusses the Wayfarer’s grief at losing his love to another.

He remarks on the beauty of the surrounding world, but how that cannot keep him from having sad dreams. The orchestral texture is bittersweet, using double reed instruments, clarinets and strings.

The music is intense and driving

The second movement, Ging heut Morgen übers Feld (I went this morning over the field), contains the happiest music of the work. Indeed, it is a song of joy and wonder at the beauty of nature in simple actions like birdsong and dew on the grass.

“Is it not a lovely world?” is a refrain. However, the Wayfarer is reminded at the end that despite this beauty, his happiness will not blossom anymore now that his love is gone. This movement is orchestrated delicately, making use of high strings and flutes, as well as a fair amount of triangle.

The third movement is a full display of despair. Entitled Ich hab’ein glühend Messer (I have a gleaming knife), the Wayfarer likens his agony of lost love to having an actual metal blade piercing his heart.

He obsesses to the point where everything in the environment reminds him of some aspect of his love, and he wishes he actually had the knife. The music is intense and driving, fitting to the agonised nature of the Wayfarer’s obsession.

The final movement culminates in a resolution. The music is subdued and gentle, lyrical and often reminiscent of a chorale in its harmonies. Its title, Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz (The two blue eyes of my beloved), deals with how the image of those eyes has caused the Wayfarer so much grief that he can no longer stand to be in the environment.

He describes lying down under a linden tree, allowing the flowers to fall on him. He wishes to return to his life before his travels.

Following a rapturous applause from the audience Peyré then performed, as an encore, An Die Musik by Schubert using the same orchestration as for the other works.