SCHOENBERG : Concerto for String Quartet; Lied der Waldtaube; The Book of the Hanging Gardens (2004) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Robert Craft is a true believer in the music of Schoenberg. He has been conducting it for more than 50 years and he has been recording it for nearly that long. Aging listeners may recall Craft's pioneering Columbia recordings. Younger listeners may recall his unfinished series of recording for Koch. This disc is the second in Craft's most recent series of Schoenberg recordings for Naxos. It features the cheerful and lighthearted Concerto for string quartet and orchestra, one of Schoenberg's least-known and least-characteristic works, in a bright and ebullient performance by the Fred Sherry String Quartet and the New York Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble. Following that is a funny and funky performance of Schoenberg's Suite for piano by Christopher Oldfather. The rest of the disc is devoted to Schoenberg's music for mezzo soprano sung by Jennifer Lane, a strangely sensual Book of the Hanging Gardens, and a darkly tragic Lied der Waldtaube. As a bonus track, Craft has included a six-and-a-half minute conversation with Arnold Schoenberg, a lovely exchange between the aged composer and his young fan. The sound throughout is clear and crisp, except, of course, for the 1949 conversation, which is close and a bit fuzzy but all the more evocative for that. Anyone who loves Schoenberg's music would love this disc. by James Leonard