Gerard McBurney's Beyond the Score series is an endless souce of pleasure - and he has taken another leap forward now with his remarkable dramatic essay on Pierrot Lunaire which we saw yesterday afternoon at Symphony Center.  With a smaller than usual number of performers on stage - just 5 players including piano, plus a singer and four actors - space was freed up to do a much more "theatrical" show. Furthermore greater opportunites were afforded to the marvellous video and lighting designers, Hillary Leben and Peter Mumford.

As ever it was brilliantly written and directed by Gerard McBurney - this is one of the jewels in the crown of the CSO.  The only thing missing was the apprearance of Gerard himself.  But I guess he was glad to watch from a decent distance as his players enacted the drama, and taught us all a thing or two about the history and evolution of music from the second Viennese school.

Next up will be Beethoven's Fifth in June.  If you go along to that I am sure you will once again discover much that you did not know.........

Portrait of Arnold Schoenberg 1917 - Egon Schiele