kamara.hu/5 – Moon Presented by Liszt Academy

Webern and Schönberg, often referred to as the great trail-blazers of the 20th century, take the lead parts in the Sunday matinée concert of the kamara.hu series. However, the works on offer are also tied to the 19th century in several ways. Webern’s single-movement Piano Quintet is in fact a work that longs to break away from Romanticism yet is incapable of doing so, which despite its dissonance is pervaded by the spirit of nostalgia and its predecessors. It hovers between two worlds, just like the heroes of Journey by Moonlight. Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire is, musically speaking, a far more forward-looking work. Set to poems of Albert Giraud, the work composed for eight instruments (five musicians) and singer in recitative manner, touches on numerous extreme and yet related themes that also have resonances with the Antal Szerb novel: love, sexuality, violence, nostalgia for the homeland, religion – and, of course, the moon.