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I really have to do better at thinking up titles.  Well, I'm on my way to Houston for a few weeks.  I'm going to be staying with my best friend from college.  He has this amazing "loft."  (We give him grief over his insistence that it be called a "loft.")  I spent yesterday working on the Schoenberg arrangement of l'apres midi d'un faune.  (I had to write it in French before providing the translation.  It's akin to my friend's insistence that he lives in a "loft.")  Anyway, Schoenberg did a reduction of Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faune, which is based on a Mallarme poem.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afternoon_of_a_Faun_%28poem%29)
The poem is erm.. sensual.  I have to admit that the original Debussy version is one of my favorite pieces.  (Not just of French impressionism but one of my favorite of all time.)
The piece is supposed to take place between the dream and awake.  A faun catches a glimpse of a nymph and wishes to possess her.  (I'm trying to keep it clean.) 
So you can see - the piece is supposed to be sensual.  With the full orchestra version, the lush string sound aids to the feeling.  The question with the Schoenberg reduction will be how to keep that same feeling behind it with fewer forces. 
(I'm studying the Schoenberg version for the audition in Minnesota.  I know the full orchestral version quite well.)