Ensemble Offspring

Moonstruck

Program 
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG Pierrot lunaire (1912) 
LAURA BOWLER Pierrot Deconstructed (2024)* 

 *Australian premiere - co-commissioned by Red Note Ensemble (Scotland), Music on Main (Canada) and Ensemble Offspring 

Pierrot lunaire sits somewhere between cabaret and concert, acting and singing, madness and depravity. It flirts with chaos as Arnold Schoenberg translates each tiny poem into music. It’s over a hundred years old, but it remains radical to the ear – a revolutionary classic that transformed music and concerts forever, just as Cubism changed painting. Even Ensemble Offspring’s distinctive line-up of musicians can be traced to this iconic creation and its grungy tale of the ‘moonstruck’ clown of commedia dell’arte.

In a one night only reprise, post our AGNSW Klänge performance in 2024, Pierrot lunaire looks to our origins as an ensemble and imagines the future. And we’re pitting it against a new work by ‘triple threat composer-performer provocatrice’ Laura Bowler. In a fresh interpretation of Albert Giraud’s poems, Bowler will deconstruct and repurpose Schoenberg’s original musical material, viewing it through a contemporary queer lens in ‘a subversive act of defiance of the great master’. Laura herself will join us from the UK to take on the hyper-virtuosic challenge of Schoenberg’s vocal lines. 

“the sheer energy behind [Bowler’s music] is irresistible” — The Guardian

“The connection between the music and Kandinsky’s artwork became evident, creating a collaborative whole where each note, each colour, and each brushstroke contributes to a kind of symphony of senses.” — Classikon

Performers
Laura Bowler (vocals) Jane Sheldon (vocals) Claire Edwardes (Artistic Director, percussion) Lamorna Nightingale (flutes) Jason Noble (clarinet) Véronique Serret (violin) Blair Harris (cello) Jack Symonds (piano)

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Street 3 | Unreserved | 110 Minutes including interval