Works for flute and harp and for voice and chamber ensemble performed by flutists Paula Robison and Sooyun Kim, clarinetist Alexis Lanz, violinist David Fulmer, cellist Eric Jacobsen, harpist Mariko Anraku, and pianist Steven Beck.
Flutist
Paula Robison is undoubtedly one of the Gardner Museum’s greatest champions
and favorite guests. On this podcast, we’ll hear two of her Gardner
performances. Chansons de Bilitis had many lives within Debussy’s own oeuvre: first as a cycle of three songs; then as incidental music for
narrator, harps, flutes, and celeste; and finally, rearranged for two
pianists. That music, in turn, was arranged for orchestra and—now—flute and
harp. It seems a fitting instrumentation—languid and sensual, and also
evocative of the poems, which mention the mythical flutist Pan. Ms. Robison
puts down the flute for a special performance as the speaker in Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. The technique of Sprechstimme had been used in German
musical theatre before, but it truly came to life in this work. Rather than
vocalizing on pitch, the narrator recites poetry in a semi-song, following
Schoenberg’s melodic contours and rhythms to produce a sort of heightened,
dramatic speech. One of the piece’s other great legacies is its distinctive
five-instrument ensemble, a configuration that would come to be known as the
“Pierrot Ensemble,” and which has been employed by a variety of 20th century
composers.
