CD-Charts Position 1

The Enjoyment of Music {Tenth Edition} Shorter Version - Four Cd's

CD-Charts > Music > All Works by Schoenberg
from: W. W. Norton

Release Date 2007

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music, Fifth Edition, Volume 2: Classic to Twentieth Century (6 CDs)

CD-Charts > Music > All Works by Schoenberg
from: W. W. Norton

Release Date January 01, 2006
Excellent product..one of the standard anthologies available for studying Music History.

One caveat, if you're using Hanning's Concise Grout as a companion text, be sure to match the correct edition of the anthology + recordings to the correct edition of the text.

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Schoenberg Violin Concerto Op.36/Sibelius Violin Concerto Op.47

CD-Charts > Music > All Works by Schoenberg
from: DG

Release Date April 08, 2008
This recording pairs two concerti that, despite the obvious differences in tonal language, have much in common: both are large-scale, impassioned and, at times, achingly lyrical works that require technical mastery and musical maturity from both soloist and orchestra.
As far as the Schoenberg goes, Hahn and Salonen meet these challenges unabashedly; it is the most well-controlled yet lyrical recording of this sadly underplayed masterpiece I know. Schoenberg's musical language--so difficult for so many listeners--is brought to life with remarkable clarity and, more importantly, treated with a lovely musicality that sings out the Romantic beauty of the work.
However, while Schoenberg's lyricism generally reveals itself in shorter ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music, Concise Version (6 Compact Discs)

CD-Charts > Music > All Works by Schoenberg
from: W. W. Norton

Release Date January 01, 2006
This recording pairs two concerti that, despite the obvious differences in tonal language, have much in common: both are large-scale, impassioned and, at times, achingly lyrical works that require technical mastery and musical maturity from both soloist and orchestra.
As far as the Schoenberg goes, Hahn and Salonen meet these challenges unabashedly; it is the most well-controlled yet lyrical recording of this sadly underplayed masterpiece I know. Schoenberg's musical language--so difficult for so many listeners--is brought to life with remarkable clarity and, more importantly, treated with a lovely musicality that sings out the Romantic beauty of the work.
However, while Schoenberg's lyricism generally reveals itself in shorter ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Schoenberg: The String Quartets

CD-Charts > Music > All Works by Schoenberg
by: Arnold Schoenberg, Evelyn Lear, New Vienna String Quartet

Release Date January 11, 2000
This is generally a fine recording. I enjoy the recording of the 3rd quartet particularly. First movement is more leisurely than the LaSalle Quartet's recording but otherwise just fine.

But what a horrible crime the engineers have committed in the 2nd Quartet! The last two movements can be agonizingly beautiful. Not here. When the soprano makes her entrance, they hush the quartet -- as if they had dropped a cloth over it. Then when her part is finished (measure 116 of the fourth movement), up comes the cloth and the full sound of the strings is restored (mm 117-156). Same thing happens in the 3rd movement. Was this in Evelyn Lear's contract? It certainly turns a lot of good music to fuzz.

Happily there are a number of recordings ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Arnold Schoenberg: Serenade/Five Pieces For Orchestra

CD-Charts > Music > All Works by Schoenberg
from: Sony

Release Date July 13, 1993
Nobody but Boulez, for "contemporain" music. In this recording, Serenata op.24, five pieces for orchestra op.16 and Ode to Napoleon, significant Schönberg works, are brought with extraordinary wealth of timbres and detail. Five stars.

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Maurizio Pollini Edition - Schoenberg: The Solo Piano Music, Piano Concerto; Webern: VAriations Op. 27

CD-Charts > Music > All Works by Schoenberg
by: Maurizio Pollini, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern

Release Date February 11, 2003
This cd contains what is simply the best recordings of all of Schoenberg's solo piano music and of his Piano Concerto. Pollini is brilliant in establishing this music as the modern decendant of Brahms. Everything sounds completely musical and logical (it makes sense musically--sounds natural). It sounds as if Brahms had lived into the 20th Century. The contribution of Abbado in the performance of the Piano Concerto is not to be overlooked, either. Abbado is probably the finest conductor of the music of the "Second Vienese School," and this performance is no exception. Only Glenn Gould comes close to Pollini in this music, and his (Sony) recording is from the 60's with dry sound. Pollini is much warmer and more musical. A great recording!

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Schoenberg: Piano Concerto

CD-Charts > Music > All Works by Schoenberg
by: Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Pierre Boulez, Mitsuko Uchida, Cleveland Orchestra

Release Date April 10, 2001
I'm not familiar with Brendel's Schoenberg "Piano Concerto", but Boulez has a special vision for Schoenberg. Listen to his "Moses and Aaron", sharp, cleanly impassioned, razor-sharp edges, provincial the way Bach is played, purely functional, unadorned phrases, and musical shapes. Uchida as well brings a controlled passion to the work, not compromising the work's content in any way. In fact that is a dangerous trap of over-determining Schoenberg, especially the music he wrote in exile, as this Concerto. The darkest clouds of Europa and the globe all around art and the humanity in many ways is inside this work. Schoenberg had renewed his interest in Judaism, where some actually criticized him for doing so,coming back to the fold too late, after living a life of assimilation. Most German Jews considered ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Masters of the Keyboard

CD-Charts > Music > All Works by Schoenberg
from: Deutsche Grammophon

Release Date February 10, 2004
I don't understand quite where the other reviewer is coming from. This is a treasure-trove of piano music by some of the best classical pianists of the last century. If you want a musical anthology of some of the best by some of the best, pick it up!

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire, Op 21; The Book of the Hanging Gardens, Op. 15

CD-Charts > Music > All Works by Schoenberg
from: Nonesuch

Release Date May 28, 1992
all the reviews, there's not much I can add.
Of the 6 Pierrot's I've owned, this DeGaetani is the finest. The orch/conducting as well matches DeGaetani's superb artistry.
Here is the finest Pierrot ever recorded.