Search - Alban Berg, Abbado, Vienna Philharmonic :: Berg: Pieces Orchestra (3)/Early Songs (7)

Good Berg...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 07/22/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

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Abbado has a bull-dog lock on Berg's Three Orchestral Pieces: he did an earlier reading with the London SO ( Berg: Lulu Suite, Altenberg-Lieder / Abbado, Price which also features the difficult to find Altenberg Lieder which were partially responsible the concert-riot in Vienna on 31 March 1913). Frankly, I've always preferred the Karajan/BPO version of the difficult Three Pieces: Schoenberg, Berg, Webern: Orchestral Works / Karajan ; Second Viennese School (Berg, Webern, Schoenberg)/Karajan & Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (3 CDs) .



The Seven Early Songs appear here in the 1928 orchestrated version. Von Otter is great as always. (There are several even earlier songs on Schönberg & Berg: Lieder --which is a superb set, if you can find a copy!)



The real star here is Berg's concert aria Der Wein in a German translation by Rhenish Symbolist Stefan George Secret Germany: Stefan George and His Circle from Baudelaire's exquisite Le Vin section of his magnum opus les Fleurs du Mal The Flowers of Evil (Oxford World's Classics) . This quarter-hour work is virtually a chamber piece employing a small but colourfully rich orchestra, which includes a sensuously lugubrious saxophone. There is an earlier realization of this piece on DGG: 7 Early Songs which I've always liked. Too, there is a Boulez reading: Alban Berg: Lulu Suite/The Wine/Lyric Suite . And it can be found in DGG's complete set: Alban Berg Collection / Various (Coll) . All highly recommended.



Doubleplus bonus early Schiele cover-art.

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