Schoenberg: Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11 (Pollini)

These wonderful little pieces are works that you (probably) have to learn to love, but which can be loved nonetheless -- and it certainly helps that Pollini plays them with intimacy and expressiveness. Though atonal, these pieces are nonetheless thinly swathed in the last vestiges of classical form and harmony: you can glimpse shades of lyrical melody, chordal accompaniments, ABA structure in the first piece, expressive appoggiaturas, pedal tones, and so on. Formally speaking there's a vast (unimaginably vast) number of things that can be said about these three pieces, standing as they are at the very threshold of full-blooded modern serial atonality, but that's not in fact that helpful if you want to just enjoy listening to these. So instead I suggest several ways of listening to these: 00:00 -- 1. Mässig 03:55 -- 2. Mässig 11:09 -- 3. Bewegt