A hundred years on from its revolutionary premiere, Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire (‘Moonstruck Pierrot’) has lost none of its bewitching, subversive power. A grim, mischievous creation whose transgressive theatricality has influenced everyone from Stravinsky to Björk, Pierrot lunaire was Schoenberg’s early masterpiece, a synthesis of the Symbolist poetry of Albert Giraud and Schoenberg’s own experiments in atonality and aural texture. Together these two forces conjure a decadent cabaret for the damned – Pierrot, the clown of legend, traversing a landscape of strange and unsettling visions, the music surrounding him, haunted and unhinged.

Performed by Melbourne’s exhilarating new music collective, Syzygy Ensemble, along with illustrious soprano Merlyn Quaife and pianist Andrea Katz, Pierrot lunaire is the culmination of a year-long tribute to Schoenberg’s masterwork – a reverent celebration of this most definitive of modern compositions, and a chance to experience first-hand the majestic, diabolical music that inspired an age.

Schoernberg Pierrot lunaire