The tricky 'Pierrot' in good hands

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, October, 2007 | by David Patrick Stearns Inquirer Music Critic

Just because many roads in 20th-century art lead back to that 1912 landmark,  Pierrot Lunaire , doesn't mean many listeners want to make the trip. Arnold Schoenberg's 45-minute cycle of musically accompanied poems taps the nascent brutality of Italian commedia dell'arte folk culture, breaks from the typical violin-based classical instrumentation, and insists that - in its ongoing examination of moon-inspired madness - the words be chanted and screamed.

When presented with two of its grandchildren Wednesday in the Philadelphia debut of Sequitur (the New York-based modern music ensemble),  Pierrot Lunaire  maintained its power to scar while acquiring the sovereign dignity that comes with performers who know precisely what the piece is trying to do.

Inventive score...