A couple of years after including this performance of the Serenade on a CD called “Schoenberg Series Vol. 1” (6/95) Koch International have reissued it. This new release does not claim to be part of the “Schoenberg Series”, but it provides the Serenade with a more logical coupling than that earlier issue.
I remain enthusiastic about this account of Op. 24, which shows how it is possible for a conductor to build concern for accuracy of detail into an interpretation that keeps the large-scale form clearly in view. The effect of so much well-characterized playing (and singing), and of a recording with such phenomenal precision of detail, even in those fugitive parts for guitar and mandolin (not marimba, as stated on the jewel case), is to bring home the remarkable intricacy of the musical fabric. Though never ponderous, this performance relishes the extraordinary complexity of Schoenberg’s musical thinking, and a similar quality can be heard in the equally sparkling account of the Suite, Op. 29.
Anyone disposed to argue that Schoenberg could lapse into music for the eye rather than the ear might cite in evidence the difficulties of balancing the three clarinets against the three strings in this score. The recording tries to help by bringing wind and strings in close while placing the piano further back, but it is still difficult for all those carefully marked principal lines to come across as the score instructs. Even if the ideal textural balance is impossible, however, the musical atmosphere is strongly projected; it will be difficult for any rival to surpass it.'