Falling between Thursday’s Solstice and Saturday’s full moon, we present a starry late-night Britten Studio performance of Schoenberg’s extraordinary tale of Pierrot, “drunk on moonlight”.

Schoenberg:
Pierrot lunaire, Op.21 (40’)

The Nash Ensemble
Claire Booth
soprano


It is 50 years since Schoenberg’s work was first heard at the Aldeburgh Festival, on 17 June 1974. Tonight’s late-night performance features leading artists The Nash Ensemble and Claire Booth. “Moonstruck Pierrot” sets poems from Albert Giraud’s cycle of the same name and in a vivid, often hallucinatory fashion relates Pierrot’s contemplation of matters both debaucherous and divine, brought on by the mysterious light of the full moon. It is one of the 20th century’s most distinctive and influential works.

“The wine that one drinks with one's eyes
Is poured down in waves by the moon at night,
And a spring tide overflows
The silent horizon...”