Album: Pi-Hsein Chena, Arnold Schönberg: Works For Piano (Hat [now] Art)

This engrossing anthology of Schönberg's piano music is like a potted history of the main innovations in classical music from the late-19th century into the beginning of the 20th.

The "Drei Klavierstücke" of 1894 are redolent of Viennese promenades but, via a series of "Fragments", Schönberg arrives in 1909 at "Drei Klavierstücke Op. 11", and the first intimations of atonality and untied harmony. From there, we get to the "Suite für Klavier Op. 25" (1921-23), his first consistent employment of the 12-tone scale. It's a fascinating journey, rendered with precision and character by the Taiwanese pianist Pi-hsien Chen.

DOWNLOAD THIS: Drei Klavierstücke Op. 11; Suite für Klavier Op. 25; Klavierstück Op. 33a