Sinfonia For eight Voices And Orchestra: II - O King
Sinfonia For eight Voices And Orchestra: III - In ruhig fliessender Bewegung
Sinfonia For eight Voices And Orchestra: IV -
Sinfonia For eight Voices And Orchestra: V -
Eindruke
Berio's most celebrated opus is what a friend describes as a "kitchen-sink work:" the Italian composer, in a display of exuberance and virtuosity, seems to have synthesized all of his disparate preoccupations and fascinati... more »ons--Samuel Beckett, Martin Luther King, Mahler, the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss--into an intensely personal orchestral fantasia. The result, which the composer describes as "perhaps my most experimental work," is ultimately joyous. Pierre Boulez conducts. --Joshua Cody« less
Berio's most celebrated opus is what a friend describes as a "kitchen-sink work:" the Italian composer, in a display of exuberance and virtuosity, seems to have synthesized all of his disparate preoccupations and fascinations--Samuel Beckett, Martin Luther King, Mahler, the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss--into an intensely personal orchestral fantasia. The result, which the composer describes as "perhaps my most experimental work," is ultimately joyous. Pierre Boulez conducts. --Joshua Cody
CD Reviews
Fantastic
Prescott Cunningham Moore | 04/05/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Luciano Berio was commissioned to write a work for the New York Philharmonic's 150th anniversary. What resulted was the Sinfonia, a masterpiece of the twentieth century musical movement. This work combines many of the Italian composers fascinations - from Mahler to Martin Luther King - and sympathizes them. The result is fascinating, stimulating, and thoroughly enjoyable. Boulez's interpretation is really top-notch. He leads the orchestra with great power, gusto, and energy. This vision is evident, especially in the third moment of the piece. Berio here takes the Scherzo from Mahler's second symphony and "pastes" in other famous musical phrases from Debussy, Ravel, Beethoven, Schoenberg and others as well as adding voices, which sustain a dialog throughout the entire movement. Boulez's intellectual approach to music is appreciated here - the result is a crisp, definitive reading of this powerful twentieth century masterpiece."
Boulez vs. Bernstein Redux
W. Heyser | 12/05/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"While I do agree that the Bernstein recording of Berio's masterwork is the better performance of the two, Boulez brings a nouance to his conducting that I think can only come from the fact that the piece had aged somewhat by the time he was conducting it. The piece might be viewed as less topical by that time, but Boulez manages to make it speak to a new audience with the same force that it had the first time it was performed. I personally feel that it is just as meaningful now as ever, regardless of who performs it, but Boulez definitely makes it feel avant garde, even after so much time has passed.
Leaving all the qualitative discussion aside, this recording is available while Bernstein's is not (unless you happen to be lucky enough to know someone with the LP), and this recording includes the additional fifth movement while Bernstein's does not. I agree that Bernstein's should be made available no matter what one might think about its quality, but this recording is at least equally deserving of a listen. I do not agree with the previous reviewer that the sound quality is lacking, so even if one loves the other recording, one should be able to buy this one as well without worrying about getting a badly-produced recording."
Ricardo Chailly and the Concertgebouw
W. Heyser | 06/22/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"If you are a fan of this great piece and haven't heard the (out of print) recording by Ricardo Chailly and the Concertgebouw -- buy it used, now: Polygram Records, #425832. It has all of the clarity and insight of this Boulez performance, but it also has great big dollops of humor, passion, wonder, mystery, etc.; it lets go. It also includes Berio's late orchestral masterpiece, "Formazione", as well as the chamber orchestra version of the "Folksongs" wonderfully sung by Jard Van Nes. The greatest Berio CD -- program, performance -- I know of."
Wonderful sound, quality; a perfect recording.
W. Heyser | 02/27/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is Berio most famous work for orchestra and its complexity and modern style makes it a perfect work for Pierre Boulez to conduct. He gives this complex work light and makes full use of Berio's unique orchestral sounds and allows the singers to shine through the musical fabric. In this recording, the orchestra is beautiful, the singers and narrator are clearly heard, and the tempos are graceful, yet controled. One thing to note about the third movement of the Sinfonia is Berio's references to other famous works. It is fun to listen to the music and mind the hidden, famous fragments of other scores. In the third movement you will hear Mahler's 2nd Symphony, Debussy's La Mer, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, and Strauss Night of the Rose to name a few. It is an amazing work. BUY THIS CD!"
Boulez NOT against bernstein
Peter Gillette | Appleton, WI United States | 04/27/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Boulez's recording of "Sinfonia" is fascinating in that it creates a revisionist view of Berio as a far "cooler" composer than he was. Granted, the complicated score works on that level, and the reserve with which Boulez interprets lends an organicism to the work's slow movements, and a direction to the first.
Just a word of correction to other reviewers: the original LP, which is quite outstanding, has Berio conducting, not Bernstein, and it lacks the fifth movement, which gives it an almost elegiac quality. What's more, while--through Boulez's championing and elsewhere--Berio has been viewed as a rather "formal" or cerebral composer, his original recording is, if anything, remarkably romantic. It's interesting to see how the London recording (rather cool, crystalline--even more reserved than Boulez) and the Boulez contrast with the Berio and, to a lesser extent, the fine Chailly recording in their attitudes towards the third movement's "Mahlerian" text. A conductor's attitude towards Mahler (ironic, detached, involved, "romantic") goes a long way towards showing what kind of message their Sinfonia will give.
The Sinfonia was constructed with more than a little doubleness in mind, and, to that extent, the Boulez is a valuable, ostensibly dispassionate essay on all Berio's worldview circa '68. Two interesting counterpoints: Boulez took over for Bernstein at the NYPhil in '69. Also, while writing the Sinfonia, Berio wrote a widely circulated (christian science monitor) critique of the twelve-tone establishment, although he quotes Boulez during Sinfonia. Boulez's championing of Berio suggests that ideological lines are not nearly as solid as we might at first presume."
Track Listings (6) - Disc #1