Anna Clementi, Ensemble Bios & Andrea Vitello - Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire, Op. 21 - Andrea Portera: Red Music (2026)
Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire is one of those works whose historical importance permanently outruns its pleasure, and this recording doesn’t really try to close that gap. Anna Clementi delivers a precise, stylistically correct Sprechstimme, and Ensemble BIOS under Andrea Vitello plays with professionalism and clarity, but the result remains more dutiful than immersive. The cycle unfolds as a sequence of sharply etched scenes rather than a space you actually inhabit; each miniature is striking in isolation, yet the cumulative arc never quite settles into something that rewards sustained return listening. Andrea Portera’s Red Music pieces fit neatly alongside the Schoenberg without embarrassing themselves, but they function more as contextual framing than as a counterweight with its own gravity. As a document, this album makes sense. As a world, it stays at arm’s length — intellectually legible, emotionally cool, and structurally respectable without ever becoming necessary.
Genre: Contemporary Classical
Country: Italy
Final Verdict: 59% (Forgettable Album)
Yearly Ranking: 6th / 8
Highlight: Red Music: No. 2, Carillon (… Thinking Shostakovich)
Made me think of:
Pierre Boulez
George Crumb
Béla Bartók
#newalbum #newalbum2026 #albumrelease #newmusic #albumoftheday #nowspinning #NowPlaying #musicdiscovery
#ContemporaryClassical #AnnaClementi,EnsembleBios&AndreaVitello #Italy
#LP #Album #release
