Label: NEOS 10709
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ARNOLD SCHONBERG (1874 - 1951): Pierrot lunair, Op. 21 (1912)
LUCIANO BERIO (1925 - 2003): Folk Songs for mezzo-soprano, flute (piccolo), clarinet, viola, harp and percussion (1964)
Stella Doufexis, speaking voice/mezzo; Maria Baptist, piano/jazz improvisations

Opus21musikplus: Bruno Jouard, flute; Dörte Sehrer, clarinet/bass clarinet; Lisa Schatzmann, violin; Nils Mönkemeyer, viola; Benjamin Santora, cello; Helen Radice, harp; Philipp Jungk & Alex Glöggler, percussion
Konstantia Gourzi, conductor
Schönberg wrote this work between March 12 and July 9, 1912, shortly before he developed the twelve-tone system. He chose twenty-one poems from a cycle by the French poet Albert Giraud, in the German translation by Otto Erich Hartleben. There is no continuous plot. Each poem describes a small scene, a lively image, a macabre anecdote, or a grotesque with the moonstruck Pierrot. Schönberg's music and the singer's "Sprechgesang" (speech-song) fuse everything into a unity.Berio's "Folk Songs" is a short anthology of melodies from various sources (sheet music, records, oral recollection) from various epochs and countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, France, North Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and United States), selected, harmonized and arranged by Berio. Sometimes the instrumental setting reinforces typical traits of the cultural frame from which the songs originate, other times these traits are disguised or sublimated. Berio himself writes that "these arrangements are my contribution to the prevention of folk song performances with piano accompaniment and, of course, constitute also a little homage to the artistry of Cathy Berberian".

Label: NEOS 10719
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An Anna Blume für Klavier und Musikal-Clown (Tenor), Op. 5/III (1929)
From: Vier Lieder auf Texte von Lenin, Majakowski und anderen, Op. 7: 1. Eine unterdrückte Klasse (1929); 2. Decret No. 2: An die Armee der Künstler (1929); 3. Was ist "Aufruhr"? (1929); 4. Auch die kleinste Tat (1930)
From: Acht Lieder auf Texte von Heine, Ottwalt, Weinert und anderen, Op. 12: 1. Das Lied vom Abbau (1931); 4. Die Herren der Welt (1931); 6. Wir sind entlassen (1932)
From: Massenlieder, Op. 17: 1. Arbeit und Kapital (1932); 7. Haben Sie Kummer (1931)
From: Drei Lieder nach Gedichten von Erich Kästner: 1. Fantasie von Übermorgen; 2. Brief eines Dienstmädchens mit Namen Amalie (1929); 3. Ansprache einer Bardame (1929); Drei Lieder nach Bertold Brecht (1943): 1. Ballade von den Osseger Witwen; 2. Der Gottseibeiuns; 3. Keiner oder alle; From: Zwei Lieder von Berthold Viertel: 1. Lebensmüdigkeit (1945)
Battle Piece: Encouragements for Piano – First piece, in seven parts (1943–1947)

Gunnar Brandt-Sigurdsson, tenor/vocalist; Johan Bossers, piano
The turn of the year from 1929 to 1930 marked a break in the life of Stefan Wolpe: after long years and many attempts to find his place within the cultural life of the avant-garde in the Weimar Republic, he then made his definitive turn to working as a political composer and worked intensely in the areas of workers' music and agitprop. Without ever abandoning his concepts of the aesthetics of music, which tended toward free atonality, the threat of National Socialist despotism made it necessary for the Jewish avant-garde musician to respond to this threat to human freedom with his music as well. So by the end of the Second World War he had produced various lieder and instrumental works that reflect the specific circumstances of the composer's life and hence document his development as an artist. This crucial phase of Stefan Wolpe's musical creativity, his transformation from avant-garde musician in Berlin to a pioneering mentor for New Music in America, is revealed in the works selected for the present CD.