Berg: Lulu

Lulu, opera
Composed by Alban Berg
Performed by Orchestre National de France
with Hans Hotter, Francis Dudziak, Bodo Schwanbeck, Boris Bakow, Patricia Wise, Graham Clark, Ernst Gutstein, Cynthia Clarey, Marie Kobayashi, Brigitte Fassbaender, Herve Hennequin, Peter Straka, Stuart Kale, Laura Zannini, Wolfgang Schone, Catherine Estourelle
Conducted by Jeffrey Tate

Berg: Lulu,Berg,Brigitte Fassbaender,Jeffrey Tate,French National Orchestra,Patricia Wise,Wolfgang Schone,Capitol,Classical,Classical Music,German/Austrian 20th/21st Century Opera,Opera,Opera / Operetta / Oratorio

Average customer rating:

Fabulous bargain, but Berg needs texts!
Superb Berg performances ... good value!
Real Estate Saver
Best Set; Good Price...
Excellent collection

Alban Berg Collection / Various (Coll)

Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000B09Z4
Release Date: 2004-03-09

Customer Reviews:

Fabulous bargain, but Berg needs texts!.......2006-02-05

This is a great set for anyone who wishes to be immersed in Alban Berg's lurid, hothouse, hallucinogenic world. Both performances and sound quality are mostly excellent: No record company has ever made as great a commitment to Berg as Deutsche Grammophon. Based on the performances alone, this deserves six stars.

But the budget price comes with a catch: No texts or librettos. (There are at least scene synopses for "Wozzeck" and "Lulu.") With some composers, this wouldn't be a serious problem, but Berg was one of the greatest control freaks in music history. Without knowing exactly where each word is placed, listeners who don't understand German will miss an important facet of this intricately multi-layered music.

Superb Berg performances ... good value!.......2006-01-05

This might be the best box set I own. First of all you get what is most likely the best available versions of the Violin Concerto,Wozzeck,Lulu (3 act ver.),Lulu suite,7 Early Songs with van Otter,Der Wein and much more. The only real sub-par performance on it is the Piano Sonata op1 with Barenboim which can be found in many other recordings for a decent price. So, if you are new to Berg and you buy this, you are getting really an outstanding set of recordings which are top of the heap with great conductors and orchestras.

Real Estate Saver.......2004-10-04

This little box is an elegant, SPACE-SAVING means of acquiring classic performances (all of them stellar) from the DG catalog of Berg's major works, including two by my adored Lasalle Quartet that I believe have recently gone OOP. The set contains eight CD's housed in somewhat hard-to-remove cardboard sleeves that clearly identify the contents therein, and includes a booklet which, despite not containing lyrics for any of the vocal works, is very informative. The lack of libretti is possibly less an issue in the case of Wozzeck; chances are that listeners already own at least one other recording and so can refer to its libretto. Lulu, however, is more problematic because more listeners probably opt to purchase this "complete/d" performance over all others and may even be purchasing this set on that basis.
Not being particularly fond of lieder in general, I feel less qualified to make an educated call as to who might own which recordings of the songs other than to remark that I already own this recording of Op. 2 (which, of course includes the lyrics). In fact, as is the case with a previous reviewer, I already own a number of recordings from this set (which I received as a gift). No matter, it's still worth owning, and I agree with yet another reviewer's suggestion to grab it while it's available. True, one might prefer different performances here or there but honestly, this affords the best way of acquiring everything in one fell swoop, and there's not a clinker in the whole set.
In that vein, I might suggest that fans of the VC seek out Szeryng's performance with Kubelik, now available remastered on DG Eloquence at budget price. It's much less emotional than Mutter's beautiful reading but I find this proves an enhancement rather than a detraction; I also feel that Kubelik, possibly due to his Austro-Hungarian upbringing, ultimately has a better grasp of this repertoire than Levine (although I love his OOP Lulu Suite/Wozzeck excerpts on Sony and Mahler 4 on RCA).

Best Set; Good Price..........2004-05-11

This is a really nice set at a good price. It features all DG's Berg recordings--which really are about the best around. This "Collectors' Edition" is certain to disappear soon and increase in value.

Excellent collection.......2004-04-06

This is a must have for any collectors, 20th Century Music admirers.

This is 8-CD set and includes the complete works of Berg on acclaimed performances.

Especially, the stars of this set (for me):
Wozzeck (Hildegard Behrens, Wiener Philharmoniker, Abbado)

Lulu, complete opera in 3 act (Teresa Stratas, Franz Mazura, Yvonne Minton, Jules Bastin, Robert Tear, Opera National de Paris, Pierre Boulez!!)

Lulu-Suite (London SO, Abbado)

Three Pieces for Orchestra (London SO, Abbado)

Piano Sonata (Daniel Barenboim)

Alban Berg's musical language is difficult to understand (at least in first listening), but when listening more times, we notice that, actually in his music, there is a very mystic or impressive and lyric atmosphere. So, I think that he is a "Romantic" modern. Just, he expressed these lyric atmospheres with realist and striking language. Still, he was used 12-tone system, but he was not forget tonality and used the both styles (even so he used jazz passages, especially in Lulu). In other words: Berg is one of the most famous and important composers and he impressed the composers came after him (ex. Shostakovich, Britten, Henze)

This is an essential collection and highly recommended.

Berg: Lulu; Wozzeck
Average customer rating:

The worst Lulu ever

Two masterworks from the years between the wars in a recording from the sixties

first of all you have to understand a role

This is an amazing opera

El mejor Wozzeck en la discografía

Berg: Lulu; Wozzeck
Karl Christian Kohn , Karl-Ernst Mercker , Kurt Böhme , Leopold Clam , Loren Driscoll , Martin Vantin , Patricia Johnson , Robert Koffmane , and William Walther Dicks
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Alban Berg Collection / Various (Coll)

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Cello Suites

Berg - Lulu / Davis, Schafer, Bailey, Kuebler, Harries, Schone, Bardon, Glyndebourne

ASIN: B00000E53D
Release Date: 2003-04-08

Tracks:

1. Akt, 1. Szene- Langsam, Wozzeck, Langsam!
Verwandlung. Orchester-Nachspiel
2. Szene- Du, Der Platz Ist Verflucht!
Verwandlung. Orchester-Nachspiel Und Beginnende Militmusik Im Hintergrund
3. Szene- Tschin Bum ! Hst Bub- Da Kommen Sie!
Verwandlung. Orchester-erleitung
4. Szene- Was Erleb' Ich, Wozzeck-
Verwandlung. Orchester-Einleitung
5. Szene- Geh Einmal Vor Dich Hin
2. Akt- Orchester-Einleitung. 1. Szene- Was Die Steine Glzen!
Verwandlung. Orchester-Nachspiel
2. Szene- Wohin So Eilig, Geehrtester Herr Sargnagel-
Verwandlung. erleitende Takte U. Kammerorchester-Einleitung. 3. Szene- Guten Tag, Franz - Ich Seh
Verwandlung. erleitende Takte Und Orchester-Vorspiel (Ldler)
4. Szene- Ich Hab' Ein Hemdlein An, Das Ist Nicht Mein
Verwandlung. Orchester-Nachspiel (Walzer)
5. Szene- Oh! Oh! Andres! Ich Kann Nicht Schlafen
3. Akt, 1. Szene- Und Ist Kein Betrug In Seinem Munde Erfunden Worden
Verwandlung. Orchester-Nachspiel
2. Szene- Dort Links Geht's In Die Stadt
Wozzeck- 3. Akt.- Verwandlung. Orchester-erleitung (H) [B]
3. Szene- -Tantzt Alle; Tanzt Nur Zu !-
Verwandlung. Orchester-Nachspiel. 4. Szene- -Das Messer- Wo Ist Das Messer--
Verwandlung. Orchester-Epilog- Invention er Eine Tonart (D-Moll)
5. Szene- -Ringel, Ringel, Rosenkranz, Ringelreih'n!-
Lulu- Prolog. -Hereinspaziert In Die Menagerie-
1. Akt, 1. Szene- -Darf Ich Eintreten-- - -Mein Sohn!-
Introduktion (Zum Canon). -Gnige Frau Frau Medizinalrat -; Canon- -Sie Bekommen Mich Noch Lange N

Customer Reviews:

The worst Lulu ever.......2007-01-20

Evelyn Lear could make a fine Marina Mnsek for Boris, his voice is not for modern opera.

Two masterworks from the years between the wars in a recording from the sixties.......2005-10-17

I remember when Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg were spoken of as the New Viennese School and compared to Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Seriously. From our present standpoint, it is impossible to understand how much influence these three composers had in the mid-twentieth century. These two operas continue to be performed and through them Berg has become the most widely remembered of the three.

Scholars have analyzed these works extremely closely and have discovered all kinds of symbolic patterns in the notes. For example, the music occurring around Marie as she dies seems rather chaotic, yet one scholar has shown that the music consists of ten fragments of music heard from and around her earlier in the opera. So, her life is passing before her as she dies.

There is always a debate about how much of this deep meaning one can actually hear and it does vary for each listener. This kind of discussion goes on in all the arts, but is particularly so in music because it is the most abstract of the arts. How abstract and how removed from the surface can any "meaning" be and still be heard? This was a discussion we had many times in music school and I have met no more than a very few who convinced me they could actually hear this deeply (and this is more than recognizing a given row or its transformation or hearing the most fleeting tonalities in atonal works).

For me, just as some of the ultra late romantic become somewhat over composed with a level of detail that seems to be there for its own sake, some of this minutiae is like going to a restaurant for a meal and being given an essay about a photograph of a painting of a pork chop. It may be interesting, informative, and even beautiful, but you still leave hungry.

"Wozzeck" and "Lulu" are powerful and affecting works. They do sound much more like highly chromatic, but tonal works than the abstractions of Webern. "Lulu" is the more severe and, well, bleak of the two. I have heard more than a few praise these works for telling the truth about human life and getting to the true center of the human heart. To me, they seem more like artworks that were above all anti-bourgeois and seem proud of that stance. They seem to invoke not only the materialist views of the world of Marx, but also of Freud, and other now long forgotten apostles of deterministic thought. Is it possible to still see these works eighty years on as modern? They are as much prisoners of their time as are any other opera and less transcendent than I expect great works of art to be.

Franz Wozzeck is a powerless man who has a child out of wedlock with a woman named Marie. He subjects himself to crackpot scientific experiments with a Dr. Schoen for a bit of extra money for Marie and their son. Marie feels oppressed by the social stigma of being an unwed mother, but also has eyes for other men. She is particularly attracted to a Drum Major who looks so wonderfully masculine, but is really a mere surface of a person. She has an affair with the Drum Major, which Wozzeck discovers. Since Wozzeck is already teetering on the edge of sanity from his impotence and the experiments, he falls off and stabs Marie after she tells him that she would rather be stabbed than beaten. He leaves her body and tosses the knife in a pond. Later, crazed even more deeply by guilt, he goes into the pond after the knife and drowns. The last moment of the play involves Marie's and Wozzeck's orphan at play and running off the stage oblivious that he is alone in the world.

So, is this the true heart of us all? Is that last moment poignant, sharp irony on the human condition, or mere kitsch? I mean, dealing with the world view of this drama might benefit from as much detachment and irony as you can bring to it.

"Lulu" is even harsher. She is married to a professor of medicine who has a heart attack when he sees her with a painter he has commissioned to paint her portrait. She marries the painter at the urging of another doctor, who is engaged to another, with whom Lulu has had a long term love affair (such as love is in this work). Finally, the doctor understands that the painter really is blind to Lulu's true nature and tells him of her past. He kills himself. Under threat the doctor marries Lulu. She then takes up with a Countess who is enamored of her. Lulu ends up killing him with a revolver he has given her. She is arrested and sentenced to prison.

However, the countess arranges to take her place in prison to aid Lulu's escape. The Countess, the doctor's son, and an athlete help her escape abroad. Lulu then ends up with a wealthy man who ends up being a pimp and sells her to Cairo.

While the opera was incomplete at Berg's early death at fifty, the outline and sketch let us know that she is living in London with the doctor's son and the athlete. When the Countess arrives without money, Lulu is reduced to becoming a streetwalker. She goes through a series of clients who are the musical reincarnations of her various husbands. One of them kills the doctor's son, and the last kills both Lulu and the Countess, since he is Jack the Ripper (!).

The music is powerful and worth knowing because it is so personal to Berg and works its magic quite well. However, I have been at a symphonic concert when the Lulu Suite has been played and seem people get up and leave because they find it so harsh and intense.

Berg was indeed a major composer of the twentieth century. He cannot be merely dismissed. If you want to understand the serious art of that century you must come to terms with these works. You don't have to love them, but you cheat yourself if you don't know them at least a bit. Certainly, the morality of these operas, shocking in their time, is roughly equal to the "normal" behavior in any two episodes of "Friends" and "Law and Order". So, it must be the music that continues to affect people so strongly.

These recordings by Karl Böhm are masterfully done with great sound and solid singing. Some would prefer a different style of Sprechstimme (the half-singing) done here, but I find it appropriately chilling with the singing voice sliding around above the simultaneously sounding singing voice. I have no idea how it is done, but it sounds wonderfully insane.

first of all you have to understand a role.......2004-11-12

...before singing it. Evelyn Lear doesn't. She is a wonderful Marina Mintsek in Boris Godounov but as well as she is really good for classical roles, she doesn't fit for Lulu. Berg is music, not disorder, Teresa Stratas understood this and moreover Christina Scheffer!

The worst version you can choose if you really "UNDERSTAND" Berg. Good singers for the wrong repertoire.

Martin Pitchon
Canada

This is an amazing opera.......2003-11-23

(This review only applies to "Lulu")

As you know, Alban Berg couldn't finished this opera, the 1-297 measures of the 3rd Act was being finished, but later, Berg, was written last (approx.) 700 measures without orchestration (only with a Piano part and libretto).

In 1970's, Friedrich Cerha was orchestrated this measures and with this version, complete Three Acts was performed in Paris Opera, conducted by Pierre Boulez, in 1979. (The recording of this performance is available on DG Classics)

But, this performance is better than the version of Boulez's. (I have listened both of two recordings). And, even so, this is a live recording from Berlin, Deutsche Oper, in 1968. So, there isn't 3rd Act, instead of this, (with the same affairs) they were performed the last movements of Lulu-Suite (Symphonic Pieces from Opera). These movements are, 4th movement - Variations on Wedekind's Theme for Lute-, and 5th movement - The Last Scene (Jack the Ripper kills Lulu and Countess Geschwitz)...Even so, Berg was wanted this movements to be perform (to think that, if he can't finish the 3rd Act).

The soloists are excellent, especially Evelyn Lear (as Lulu), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (as Dr. Schön), Loren Driscoll (as Painter) and Donald Grobe (as Alwa). It is an interesting condition that, actually Karl Böhm isn't a conductor of 20th Century Music. We know with his historic Mozart and R. Strauss recordings. But in this set, he is amazing in both of Wozzeck and Lulu.

Another an interesting condition that, in "Wozzeck", the composer was used a large ensemble (ex. A quadruple orchestra, plus choir) and this is an atonal opera, isn't a 12-tone music at all. In "Lulu", Berg was used a little small ensemble than in Wozzeck (tripled orchestra, no choir), but this is a full 12-tone music. So, this opera is more difficult to reading the partition (of opera) or listen this music with understands than Wozzeck (it is interesting, but, Berg was written more difficult music with a little small ensemble and his first opera "Wozzeck" is more easy to understand or reading the partition but this is scored for large ensemble). Because, Berg was used 12-tone system at all, so, perhaps, this is more difficult to listen, but if you listen more and more, you will enjoy (!) with this music.

And there is a very amazing music in this opera: Interlude - Film Music (in 2nd Act between 1st and 2nd Scenes). In last minutes of 1st Scene, Lulu kills Dr. Schön and she arrests by police with help of Alwa (Doctor's Son). With a fast fall of curtain, Interlude - Film Music starts and there is a show that a (black-white, without colouring and without sound) short film tells, that Lulu's fortune in one year. Because of subject of film, in the music, starts and moves forwards, than music reaches to a centre (of music) and than, the music moves backwards! (This music was used once again in Lulu-Suite as the 1st movement of suite)...

Best tracks: Act 1
No. 2 Canon, No. 4 Melodram - The Death of Professor, No. 5 Arioso of The Painter (this is a very mysterious music), No. 10 Monoritmica (The Rhythm of Death, this rhythm was used in whole opera, in every passages!), No. 12 (Sonata Development)

Act 2:
No. 6 and 7 (Lulu kills Dr. Schon and arrests), No. 8 Film Music (of course!)

Instead of Act 3 (from Lulu-Suite): Variations (because of the Third act wasn't be found yet) and Adagio (Lulu, Countess Geschwitz...Jack the Ripper!)

Highly recommended for any Alban Berg, 20th Century Music or opera admirers.

El mejor Wozzeck en la discografía.......2003-09-28

Esta versión dirigida por Karl Böhm y producida por Otto Gerdes es en mi opinión la mejor que existe en el mercado. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau canta un Wozzeck soberbio. Aún sin verlo, sólo con escucharlo puede uno imaginarlo en el escenario. Evelyn Lear canta una Marie excelente, al igual que Fritz Wunderlich en su interpretación de Andrés. Caso aparte merece el gran Gerhard Stolze en su interpretación del capitán,en mi opinión la mejor que existe en la discografía, siendo una burda copia de la misma la realizada por Heinz Zednik en la versión de Claudio Abbado.
Karl Böhm realiza una interpretación llena de detalles y el sonido de DG es en ésta grabación digno de mencionarse, con un buen balance y sin la tendencia a los agudos típico de las grabaciones de DG.
Esta grabación es el punto de referencia para las otras que existen y ni la versión de Abbado ni Dohnanyi estan a su altura.
Este set de CDs consta de dos óperas, la ya comentada Wozzeck y Lulú en su versión original incompleta con sólo los dos primeros actos y la suite de Lulú como complemento, pero a pesar de ser una buena interpretación, en esta última ópera recomiendo la versión de Boulez en DG, con la reconstrucción del tercer acto por Friedrich Cerha y con Teresa Stratas como protagonista principal.

Berg: Lyric Suite; Wozzeck (Fragments); Lulu Suite

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Berg: Lyric Suite; Wozzeck (Fragments); Lulu Suite
Marc , Sinopoli , and Staatskapelle Dresden
Manufacturer: Elatus
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
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Alban Berg: Lyric Suite

ASIN: B00006L9SO
Release Date: 2006-05-17

Tracks:

Lyric Suite - Andante Amoroso
Lyric Suite - Allegro Misterioso - Trio Estatico
Lyric Suite - Adagio Appassionato
Wozzeck Fragments - I(Act I, Scenes 2 & 3)
Wozzeck Fragments - Ii(Act Iii, Scene 1)
Wozzeck Fragments - Iii(Act Iii, Scenes 4 & %)
Lulu Suite

Alban Berg: Lulu Suite/The Wine/Lyric Suite

Average customer rating:

superb Berg, superb Boulez
Faster than Karajan, but with equal understanding
Powerful Expressionism

Alban Berg: Lulu Suite/The Wine/Lyric Suite

Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Release Date: 1991-01-14

Customer Reviews:

superb Berg, superb Boulez.......2005-08-26

This is yet another recording that I am finally getting around to hearing on the occasion of Pierre Boulez's 80th birthday year, a superb entry in Sony's PIERRE BOULEZ series, with Boulez leading the New York Philharmonic. The most surprising aspect to me is finding that the "Lulu Suite" is mainly instrumental! Only one movement of five features Judith Blegen's soprano, the "Song of Lulu." So the main vocal feature on the disc is Jessye Norman's soprano on "The Wine," which sets to music verses of Baudelaire from "Les Fleurs du mal."

All three works use the 12-tone system created by Schoenberg. Berg is widely seen as the most listener-friendly of the Second Vienna School, and this music, while not as accessible as Mahler, has dramatic contours and lush orchestration that confirm that reputation. The story of the "Lulu Suite" is worth repeating -- Berg could not get the opera "Lulu" performed, as it was banned by the Nazis as "degenerate art." The suite was slipped past the censors by Erich Kleiber, who conducted the first performance in Berlin on November 30th, 1934. "Lulu" was left incomplete by Berg at his death in 1935, and parts of Act III existed with full scoring only in the "Suite." Friedrich Cerha only reconstructed the complete "Lulu" years later, and Boulez conducted the complete version for the first time in 1979, which was recorded, and was just reissued by DG.

"The Wine" was written concurrently with "Lulu," and not surprisingly the music is roughly similar, with Weill-like jazz elements, so it fits perfectly with the "Suite." Finally, the orchestral arrangement of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th movements of the "Lyric Suite," Berg's 12-tone string quartet, provides a fascinating contrast to the chamber version. A hidden love song, the "Lyric Suite" is famously the musical story of the unconsummated romance between the married Berg and a married woman. The Adagio appassionato, originally the fourth movement, here becomes the last movement, and so the work ends with tragic love in full flower, whereas in the full string quartet, the last two movements represent the parting and resignation that follow.

A gem, another splendid contribution by Boulez to spreading the word of the Second Vienna School, the cornerstone of modern music!

Faster than Karajan, but with equal understanding.......2002-07-14

A wonderful Lulu suite. An exquisite Der Wein. And selections from the Lyric Suite done to perfection. Indeed a stellar Berg disc. I was used to the Lyric Suite pieces in the Karajan version (still not to be missed)with their languid and lush textures, but Boulez is just as good in his own way if more up-tempo. Highly recommendable.

Powerful Expressionism.......2000-12-28

This is gut-wrenching stuff. Berg's music may be complex, but the impact of pieces like these is immediate and powerful. This recording of the Lulu-Suite, one of Berg's last pieces, is particularly startling--those who call Pierre Boulez' conducting "cold" have probably never heard this disc. I have hardly been more satisfied with any disc of classical music than I have with these performances.

Berg: Lulu Suite / Altenberg Lieder / Three Pieces for Orchestra

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Berg: Lulu Suite / Altenberg Lieder / Three Pieces for Orchestra
Alban Berg (Composer) , Margaret Price (Soprano) , London Symphony Orchestra , and Claudio Abbado (Conductor)
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B00000E3YV
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Vienna: Music by Schoenberg, Webern and Berg

Average customer rating:

Favorite recording of Berg's 3 Pieces
excellent, terrific
Dorati does it again
One of Dorati's Best Recordings
As If It Was Just Music, Which It Is

Vienna: Music by Schoenberg, Webern and Berg

Manufacturer: Philips
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000057KO
Release Date: 1990-09-12

Tracks:

Five Pieces for Orchestra: I. Vorgefuhle
Five Pieces for Orchestra: II. Vergangenes
Five Pieces for Orchestra: III. Sommermorgen an einem See
Five Pieces for Orchestra: IV. Peripetie
Five Pieces for Orchestra: V. Das obligate Rezitativ
Five Pieces for Orchestra Op. 10: Five Pieces For Orchestra, Op. 10 - I. Sehr ruhig und zart - II. Lebhaft un zart bewegt - III. Sehr langsam und ausserst ruhig - IV. Fliessend ausserst zart - V. Sehr fliessend
Three Pieces for Orchestra Op. 6: I. Praeludium
Three Pieces for Orchestra Op. 6: II. Reigen
Three Pieces for Orchestra Op. 6: III. Marsch
Lulu Suite: I. Rondo
Lulu Suite: II. Ostinato
Lulu Suite: III. Lulu's Song
Lulu Suite: IV. Variations
Lulu Suite: V. Adagio

Amazon.com

Schoenberg's Five Pieces were a Mercury Living Presence specialty. They were recorded first in mono, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Rafael Kubelik (a great performance recently reissued on CD), and then again in stereo--this version is also excellent. It's all the more amazing when you consider that in the 1950s and early '60s they were considered by most concertgoers to be the musical Antichrist. Today it's a little hard to see what the fuss was about. They are actually quite beautiful, sort of atonal Debussy, and along with the Berg and Webern pieces, these may have been the first professional recordings that really did justice to the works of the Second Viennese School. They still sound great--a tribute to both Antal Dorati and Mercury. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

Favorite recording of Berg's 3 Pieces.......2006-03-14

Since the LP days, this has been my favorite recording of Berg's 3 Orchestral pieces. Dorati is one of the greatest underrated conductors ever. The recording is fantastic and the CD edition, great (altough the LPs still sound better).

excellent, terrific.......2004-08-15

This is a very good collection of 2nd Vienna School. All works are amazing. These works are not dangerous modernly, but very effective, somewhere dramatic, too. And the performances of Antal Dorati is awesome. His London Symphony Orchestra played with emotion, powerfrul, effective. The sound quality is excellent, too.

Schoenberg's Five Pieces, Op. 16 is his one of the first atonal works. Written for large orchestra, and it is very insane, impressive, somewhere very contemplative and calm (in 2nd and 3rd pieces). But, I think the star of this CD is Alban Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra:

Berg's Three Pieces, Op. 6 is may be the most complex work of 2nd Vienna School, but it is most impressive, too. Especially, the last movement, which a funeral music written with influencing of World War I, is very effective, heavy but drammatic, touching. In last minutes there are very powerful climaxes which there is a solo for hammer! The last exploding chord of the work, which comes after a very deep deathful silence, is terrible. I think, this is may be a prophety of Berg, which means these wars will not finish, may be in next years there are more terrible wars, including atomic bomb!!

Another important work is Berg's Lulu-Suite. This suite be constitued from his second opera, as you know. It is includes, a very amazing music, Interlude-Film Music. In this movement, the curtain of 2nd Act's 1st scene falls and then a silent-non-coloured film starts with this music. It has a very interesting, but intelligent form, based on film's story: the music starts and go forward, then it arrves a centre of music, and then it goes backwards! and finishes as like starts...

It is an essential recording and at this price, a must have for any classical music lovers. Highly reccomended.

Dorati does it again.......2002-09-07

Here is nice collection of orchestral works by the second Viennese school, the big three of atonality:Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg. Antal Dorati, conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, brings the same fire and verve to these touchstones of musical Modernism that was so amply displayed in his legendary recording of Stravinsky's "Le Sacre Du Printemps" with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (one of my all-time favorite classical recordings). The Schoenberg pieces are full of rich texture and intriguing rhythmic juxtapositions, definitly a good introduction to the work of this challenging composer. The concise angular miniatures of Webern's "Five Pieces" for orchestra last only a little longer than four minutes, and are stunningly concise and inventive, with nary a note wasted. These are priceless sonic jewels that rank up there with the composer's "Six Bagatelles" for string quartet in economy and invention, with an equally precise placement of silences that thunder with the same authority as the notes(if only a little softer!). Berg is a composer I'm less familiar with, but these works seem to support his reputation as the most "traditional" of the three. His pieces have a lushness and density of sound not found in most of Schoenberg, and certainly not in Webern. They strike me as less inventive than the works of the other two, like Romantic music without the dramatic tonality. Consequently, Berg's works don't demand my attention like those of Schoenberg and Webern; but a more traditional classical music listener might get more out of them than I do. All in all, a nice, well-conducted collection with surprisingly good sound (only a little tape hiss, here and there), considering that these are recordings from the early 60's.

One of Dorati's Best Recordings.......2001-10-02

One of the most famous records of the Lp era contained these gorgeous performances of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, performances that establish those composers' important connections with Mahler and Debussy. Now resplendently remastered for cd, they still shine. If you're at all shy when it comes to the music of Schoenberg and the rest of the "Second Viennese School," take the plunge with this disk! Dorati positively milks these scores for drama without sacrificing any of their inherent poetry and, yes, real charm. Sound quality remains spectacular after 40 years. Note that the cd contains all the music on the original Lp, and generously adds to it a great performance of Berg's "Lulu Suite" taken from another famous Living Presence Lp that also contained excerpts from Berg's earlier opera, "Wozzeck." (P.S. You can find the "Wozzeck" excerpts included on Dorati's awesome Mercury cd of Bartok's opera "Duke Bluebeard's Castle." Another "must have" classic!)

As If It Was Just Music, Which It Is.......2001-04-01

Here are some full-bodied orchestral works from the Big Three composers of twelve-tone music (though the pieces may not all be strictly twelve-tone). You can load this CD into your multi-disc player along with other early Twentieth Century pieces that are not twelve-tone and they will fit right in. The secret is Dorati's approach to this music: He treats them just as if they were regular pieces of music, not something to examine as an historical curiosity, not something to work hard at exposing all the details (at the expense of each piece's wholeness), and certainly not something to worship. They're just naturally and sympathetically played, and all those nice details show up anyway.

The recordings harken from that era when Mercury was using the 35 MM film system of recording, and the good news about that is that the "tape hiss" you would normally associate with a recording from this era is tremendously low. All you get is the music.

Tracks:

Prologue - Bruno Maderna
Act One: Darf Ich Eintreten?
Act One: Machen sie Auf!
Act One: Eva!... Befehlen?
Act One: Den Hab Ich Mir Auch Ganz Anders Vorgestellt
Act One: Was Tut Denn Ihr Vater Da?
Act One: Nun?... Du Hast Eine Halbe Million Geheiratet
Act One: Ich Kann Mich Jetzt Hier Nicht Gehen Lassen
Act One: Interlude - Bruno Maderna
Act One: Seit Ich Fur De Buhne Arbeite
Act One: Uber De Lieese Sich Freilich Eine Interssante Oper Schreiben
Act One: Wie Kannst Due Die Szene Gegen Mich Auspielen

Tracks:

Act Two: Sie Glauben Nicht, Wie Ich Mich Derauf Freue
Act Two: Gott Sie Dank
Act Two: Die Matinee Wird
Act Two: Sein Vater!... In Paris
Act Two: 'Lied Der Lulu'
Act Two: Interlude (Film Music) - Bruno Maderna
Act Two: Er Lasst Auf Sich Warten
Act Two: Sie Wollen Der Verruckten Rakete
Act Two: Hu, Kleine Lulu
Act Two: Wenn Deine Beiden Grossen Kinderaugen
Act Three: Variations - Bruno Maderna
Act Three: Adagio (Finale)

Customer Reviews:

Lulu - Ilona Steingruber.......2005-04-26

Don't make a mistake. There is two versions with Ilona Steingruber. The LP is wonderful. This one is not that good.

Tracks:

Three Fragments From 'Wozzeck' (1924): I. (I. Akt, 2. und 3. Szene) Langsam
Three Fragments From 'Wozzeck' (1924): II. (III. Akt, 1. Szene) Thema. Grave - Variationen 1-7 - Fuge
Three Fragments From 'Wozzeck' (1924): III. (III. Akt, 4. und 5. Szene) Langsam
Three Orchestral Pieces Op. 6 (1914-15): I. Praludium. Langsam
Three Orchestral Pieces Op. 6 (1914-15): II. Reigen. Anfangs etwas zogernd, leicht beschwingt
Three Orchestral Pieces Op. 6 (1914-15): III. March. Massiges Marschtempo
Lulu-Suite (1934) - Symphonic Pieces From The Opera 'Lulu': Rondo. Andante (Introduzione) - Hymne. Sostenuto
Lulu-Suite (1934) - Symphonic Pieces From The Opera 'Lulu': Ostinato. Allegro
Lulu-Suite (1934) - Symphonic Pieces From The Opera 'Lulu': Lied der Lulu. Comodo
Lulu-Suite (1934) - Symphonic Pieces From The Opera 'Lulu': Variationen. Moderato (Grandioso - Grazioso - Funebre - Affetuoso - Thema)
Lulu-Suite (1934) - Symphonic Pieces From The Opera 'Lulu': Adagio. Sostenuto - Lento - Grave

Amazon.com

Berg's "Three Pieces" take the most nightmarish sections of Mahler's Sixth Symphony as their starting point and explore the outermost bound of musical terror. They are not easy to listen to by any means, but if you're a fan of horror movie soundtracks, then you'll find this an experience not to be missed. None of the remaining music on this disc is quite so frightening, but it also won't exactly leave you humming the tunes. Berg takes some work, but it's such good music nevertheless that you may find it worth your time. James Levine knows and loves these pieces, and he has an orchestra that plays them with the confidence born of long familiarity. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

A gorgeously performed sampler of Berg's best.......2002-04-26

For Berg lovers this is an extraordinary recording. For those who remain unconvinced of his talent -- and you know who you are -- this disc might change your mind. Never have these pieces sounded so lyrical and Richard Strauss-ian, and frankly, just plain beautiful. The sonorities and textures Levine elicits from this amazing orchestra are ravishing, and the entire project is recorded with clarity that brings out the precision of Berg's writing.

In recent years, Levine has received justifiable acclaim for his live performances of both "Wozzeck" and "Lulu," and this disc offers a glorious glimpse of each one, not to mention an outstanding version of Berg's powerful "Three Pieces for Orchestra." The latter is almost frightening, with Levine hunting down every last blazing color in the score.

Ms. Fleming is magnificent here. Surely I am not the only music-lover who would be delighted if she were to tackle Marie in "Wozzeck" or the title character in "Lulu." Fleming negotiates the ferociously difficult "Lied der Lulu" effortlessly, and reaches a thrilling climax as the vocal line ascends into the stratosphere.

The great Met Orchestra makes a sensuous, crystalline partner for Fleming's powerful sound. We can only imagine the pleasures that complete recordings of these operas might offer, with the combination of Levine's vision and these artists working at this kind of white-hot level. In any case, for now we will have to be satisfied with this stunning preview.

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