Schoenberg: Suite for Piano, Op.25 (Boffard)

An intensely nuanced and perky performance of one of Schoenberg’s earliest 12-tone works (the prelude and gavotte might actually be the first 12-tone piece Schoenberg ever wrote). The Suite for Piano has had a rather undeserved reputation as an academically strict work: in fact, it is expressive and vivid, and full of life. For a start, the tone row of the suite E–F–G–D♭–G♭–E♭–A♭–D–B–C–A–B♭ contains a rather cheeky cryptogram of BACH (the last 4 notes are BACH spelled backward), and the HCAB sequence recurs as the root of tetrachord sequences throughout the suite. Schoenberg’s use of serialism is also quite free and consistently creative: the tone row is used as both melody and accompaniment in the Prelude (transposed by a tritone in the bass to avoid note repeats), the Gavotte uses pitches of the row in the wrong order (although each tetrachord retains its integrity), the Intermezzo contains pitch repetitions, the trio in the Menuett is a strict canon that links together all the different permutations of the row arising in the suite, and the Gigue motors along with barely contained rhythmic energy. There’s also the fact that the pieces are all recognisable as baroque forms, even if they’re extensively modified, and that each has its own quite distinct character. The Prelude is propelled along by the pitch repetitions in m.3; the Gavotte and Musette have rhythmic outlines that are well-defined, even graceful, in their wry detachment; the Intermezzo has that long line singing beneath that halting RH ostinato; the Menuet is liltingly brooding; and the Gigue darkly fraught with intimations of violence. There’s a lot here that is owed to Boffard’s superb playing, which is full of sensitivity, delicate shading, and rhythmic drive – all of this in music which, if played badly, easily becomes rigid, coolly colourless, mechanical. 00:00 – Prelude 01:01 – Gavotte 02:11 – Musette (Gavotte da capo at 3:27) 04:37 – Intermezzo 08:38 – Menuet (and Trio at 10:23) 12:19 – Gigue