Schoenberg’s early string sextet Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), op.4, dates from 1899. He made the arrangement for string orchestra in 1943. It is a work heavily indebted to Wagner, and especially Tristan und Isolde, although the unique voice of Schoenberg is already apparent. Gurrelieder and Pelleas und Melisande would bring the curtain down on his late romantic period and the daring atonal music that has caused him to remain a musical bogey man for many would follow. Verklärte Nacht is a wonderful, intensely moving work and the ideal introduction to this great composer.

The Baltic Chamber Orchestra’s first release for Rubicon – Strauss’s Metamophosen and Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony – was praised by the BBC Music Magazine and made an orchestral CD of the month upon release. This new album looks set to receive a similarly positive reception.