Six Little Piano Pieces op. 19

One of the answers found by Schönberg’s circle to the question about how musical processes could be shaped without a tonal context was in the extreme streamlining of the form. With Schönberg’s Six Little Piano Pieces op. 19 of 1911, the concentration on the essential is legendary. Behind its fleeting gestures lie hidden depths, shown especially through its supposed reference in the last piece to Gustav Mahler’s funeral on 21 May 1911. With his carefully considered fingerings, Emanuel Ax invites all pianists to engage with these miniatures anew.