Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht

As an example of Naxos's daring these days, for only its second disc of Schoenberg, it has headed for the Second Chamber Symphony - a work begun in 1906 but not completed after 1939 - rather than the familiar First. Like the Gurrelieder, which was part-orchestrated after Schoenberg's style had moved on from his late-Romantic phase, so the Second Chamber Symphony bears the mark of those missing 33 years in its combination of chromaticism and more acerbic dynamism. The Ulster Orchestra gives a vibrant performance of the work.