Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire belongs alongside Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and a few other modernist masterpieces as one of the truly groundbreaking scores of the early 20th century – yet in Britain it’s rarely heard in concerts.

But works by the Second Viennese School feature in Psappha’s 2019-20 concerts in the Hallé Orchestra’s handsome rehearsal and performance space, and Pierrot Lunaire was the main work in the latest of them.

It was a reminder of what an extraordinary work it is: not just the greatest achievement of Schoenberg’s expressionist period, but a score whose dramatic trappings, unmistakably derived from cabaret yet taken to nightmarish extremes, have influenced music theatre ever since. It’s that hybrid element, though, that poses problems in any performance of Pierrot. Does the work belong on stage or in a concert hall? Should its protagonist be actor or singer, and just how faithfully should the Sprechgesang settings of the text be observed?

Claire Booth was the soloist here, and got that balance between speech and song exactly right. There was certainly caricature in her presentation – which stayed on the right side of winsomeness – but musical accuracy, too. This was perfectly matched to the playing of the Psappha instrumentalists, who made the most of their solo opportunities throughout the cycle.

The concert began with something utterly different, Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s In the Light of Air from 2014 – four linked movements for an instrumental quintet and electronics, which are all studies in slowly shifting textures and harmonies. The performance was preceded by a brief session of meditation that set the tone for the work itself just a bit too effectively.