BilbaoSinfonietta tackled one of the masterpieces of the 20^th century: Arnold Schönberg’s PIERROT LUNAIRE in the 83rd edition of the Quincena Musical de Donostia. A 21-poem cycle written by A. Giraud where Schönberg —aside from providing the singing with a new, masterful new approach by playing with spoken singing or Sprechgesang— uses the multiple colours of a sinuous instrumentation to underline the emotional content of the text and, above all, back away from a tonality he already left behind in his Three piano pieces OP. 11.

Gabriel Erkoreka, National Music Award 2021 winner, concluded this year a three-piece cycle named AMETSAK, series that reflects Erkoreka’s interest in memory and mental processes. The first piece was released in 2013 by Plural Ensemble, the second by the French Ensemble Court-Circuit and the recent AMETSAK 3 was able to be first listened to in this concert.

Aside from sharing the same instrumentation, Schönberg’s and Erkoreka’s work both hide certain assonances that boosted the decision to present them intermingled. While it is true one hundred years separate them, the fantasy of stopping time through music or distorting reality through dreams is still true to both creations.

The number three —very symbolic in our culture— served as a guide for the program’s structure. Schönberg classified his Pierrot as OP.21 and separated the twenty-one poems in three sections: among them each one of Gabriel Erkoreka’s pieces were interspersed. Never had these pieces been heard in the same concert before.

Conductor
Iker Sánchez Silva

Soprano
Claire Michel de Hass

BilbaoSinfonietta
Xabier Calzada Flute
Javier Roldán Clarinet
Mirka Scepanovich Violin / Viola
Diego Val Cello
Itsaso Sainz de la Maza Piano