As seemingly random collections of music by Arnold Schoenberg go, this disc by Robert Craft seems at first to be the most random of all. Once Stravinsky's amanuensis and currently a conductor dedicated to the classics of modernist music, Craft has combined on a single program Schoenberg's lushly tonal Chamber Symphony, his agonizingly atonal Die glückeliche Hand, and his bracingly dodecaphonic Wind Quintet. For some composers, such extremes might provoke aesthetic whiplash, but in Schoenberg's case it's business as usual. While he might switch harmonic languages and rhetorical styles from work to work, Schoenberg's compositional personality remains essentially the same. In this set of polished and affectionate performances, Craft creates not a random collection of music but a coherent portrait of the composer as a passionately inspired craftsman. With the skillful Philharmonia Orchestra at his fingertips, Craft turns in a smoothly refined and warmly emotional performance of the Second Chamber Symphony that makes the work sound like late Brahms at his most majestic. With the expressive bass Mark Beesley and the distinctive Simon Joly Chorale, Craft's Die glückeliche Hand is urgent and explosive, but always tightly controlled. And with the virtuoso New York Woodwind Quintet, Craft's Wind Quintet sounds as exciting, cogent, and masterful as Beethoven's "Eroica." Though not for everyone, listeners who enjoy Schoenberg will embrace this disc.
by James Leonard
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