Brilliantly performed and beautifully recorded, the Ensemble Avantgarde's recording called Chamber Music of the Viennese School will be a delectable treat for discerning tastes. From the serene lyricism of the opening of Alban Berg's Adagio through the cheeky humor of Hans Erich Apostel's Sonatina, the etiolated ecstasy of Anton Webern's Stücke (4) für Giga und Klavier, the aphoristic wit of Hanns Eisler's Sieben Klavierstücke, the histrionic agony of Arnold Schoenberg's Phantasy, and closing with Leopold Spinner's tasty Suite, this recording will delight connoisseurs of exquisite refinement. The Ensemble Avantgarde's playing is strong and sure, wonderfully subtle, and deeply expressive. Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm's sound is so real you can feel its air. For many, perhaps even most listeners, Chamber Music of the Viennese School will be an abhorrent aural abomination because much if not most of it is explicitly atonal. But for listeners who hear atonality as an evolutionary extension of the expressive potential inherent in tonality, this disc will be enchanting.
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