Today it may still seem unusual to give access in a recording to pieces of music which only exist as fragments, yet it seems to me that this is fundamentally no less meaningful and exciting than the now customary practice of including in exhibitions of visual art representative sketches, notations, and preliminary designs using such material to document the manner in which the works of art came into being (Herbert Henck). The Fragments of 17 Piano Pieces - recorded for the first time - represent a chronological cross-section of some 40 years of Arnold Schoenberg's creative life and include all the important stages in his dramatic artistic development. Condensed, as it were, the transformation of Schoenberg's musical language is experienced in an almost exemplary manner, a transformation which otherwise extends through his complete works and is reflected in the most various musical styles, materials and instrumental combinations.