Berg Archive
INTO THE LIGHT = Quartets by KIRCHNER, WEBERN, BRITTEN—The Telegraph Quartet— Centaur
The Telegraph Quartet album, “Into the Light”, shines a light of clarity on to works by Kirchner, Webern, Britten.
BERG: Lulu (David Robert Coleman completion) – DGG
A production for idiots, and a musical completion that spells disaster. ALBAN BERG: Lulu (complete opera, David Robert Coleman completion) Cast: Mojca Erdmann (Lulu)/ Deborah Polaski (Countess Geschwitz)/ Michael Volle (Jack the Ripper)/ Thomas Piffka (Alwa)/ Stephan Rügamer (Painter/Negro) Orch.: Staatskapelle Berlin/ Daniel Barenboim Director: Andrea Breth Studio: DGG 00440 073 4934 Video: 16:9 widescreen […]
MOZART: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major K. 219 “Turkish”; HENZE: Violin Concerto No. 1; MARTIN: Magnificat – Wolfgang Schneiderhan, v./ Irmgaard Seefried, sop./ Swiss Festival Orch./var. conductors – Audite
Austrian virtuoso violinist Wolfgang Schneiderhan explores classic and modern scores at the Lucerne Festival. MOZART: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major K. 219 “Turkish”; HENZE: Violin Concerto No. 1; MARTIN: Magnificat – Wolfgang Schneiderhan, v./ Irmgaard Seefried, sop./ Swiss Festival Orch./ Paul Hindemth (Mozart)/ Ferdinand Leitner (Henze)/ Bernard Haitink (Martin) – Audite 95.644, 65:07 (10/31/16) […]
Maria Yudina, A Great Russian Pianist = BEETHOVEN, STRAVINSKY, BARTOK – Praga Digitals
A concise portrait of the iconoclast Maria Yudina, who championed modern music. Maria Yudina, A Great Russian Pianist = BEETHOVEN: Variations and Fugue in E-flat Major, Op. 35 “Eroica”; BERG: Piano Sonata, Op. 1; STRAVINSKY: Serenade in A Major; Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments; BARTOK: Mikrokosmos, Bk. V-VI: excerpts – Maria Yudina, piano/ USSR […]
Horenstein conducts BERG and SCHOENBERG = BERG: Altenberglieder; SCHOENBERG: Verklaerte Nacht; Kammersymphonie No. 1 – Irma Kolassi, mezzo-sop./ Orch. Nat. de la Radiodiffusion Francaise (Berg)/ Orch. of SW German Radio/ Jascha Horenstein – Pristine Audio
Pristine restores the historic appearance of Berg’s Altenberglieder in their original, complete performance.
Memorial Concert for Claudio Abbado, Blu-ray (2014/2015)
A flawed tribute to one of the truly great musicians of this century.
SCHOENBERG: Pelleas und Melisande; Variations for Orch. – Israel Philharmonic Orch./ Zubin Mehta – Helicon
Zubin Mehta leads two distinct personae in the Schoenberg canon, and they persist in their testing of our musical perceptions.
SCHULHOFF: Suite Dansante en jazz; 11 Inventions; Sonata No. 3; Partita for Clavier – Michal Tal, p. – Centaur
The “Lost Generation” composer Edwin Schulhoff finds conscientious readings of his piano music from Israeli artist Michal Tal.
* “The Argentinian Album” = PIAZZOLLA: Four Seasons of Buenos Aires; GINASTERA: Concerto for Strings; GOLIJOV: Last Round – Amsterdam Sinfonietta/ Candia Thompson – Channel Classics
************ MULTICHANNEL DISC OF THE MONTH ************
Three important Argentinian composers, and works for strings in excellent surround.
A Piano Recital by Peter Miyamoto = BACH: Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor; BERG: Piano Sonata; BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major; RAVEL: Jeux d’eau; CHOPIN: Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp Minor – Blue Griffin
Miyamoto’s 2012 recital offers a diversity of musical styles performed with intelligent passion.
BERG: Violin Concerto; BARTOK: Rhapsody No. 2; Violin Concerto (No. 2) – Isaac Stern, v./ New York Philharmonic/ Leonard Bernstein – Praga
Mysterious origins for this release, but in the end I don’t really care. It’s great to have it in this format.
BERG: Wozzeck (complete opera) (2013)
A superb television production from 1994, limited in visual and audio scope, but still very well presented.
GEORGE PERLE: String Quartets 2, 5 and 8; Molto Adagio – Daedalus Quartet – Bridge
Excellent performances of the string quartets of George Perle – an important American composer whose “12-tone-tonality” is sophisticated, elegant and beautiful.
MAHLER: Symphony No. 9 – Vienna Philharmonic Orch./ Bruno Walter – Pristine Audio
Andrew Rose breathes even another life into the classic 1938 Bruno Walter performance of Mahler’s last-completed symphony, itself a paean to dying man and a beleaguered vision of civilization.
MARTIN BOYKAN, ‘Orchestral Works’ = Concerto for Violin and Orch.; Symphony for Orch. – Curtis Macomber, violin/Sanford Sylvan, bar. /Boston Modern Orch. Project/Gil Rose – BMOP Sound
Another fascinating addition from the hyper-adventurous BMOP.
BERG: Drei Orchesterstücke; SCHÖNBERG: Pelleas un Melisande – Dortmund Philharmonic Orch./Jac van Steen – MD&G
Two essential early works from the masters of the Vienna School.
The RIAS Second Viennese School Project [TrackList follows] – Soloists/ RIAS Choir & Orch/Berlin Philharmonic, Berlin Radio-Sym./various cond. – Audite (4 CDs)
Even after 100 years, the music of the Second Viennese School challenges and offends, our musical and intellectual complacency assaulted by sounds and textures testing the limits of our aesthetic prejudices.
Salzburg Festival Opening Concert 2012, Blu-ray
We’ve come a long way to get an opening Festival concert like this.
MAHLER: Symphony No. 3 in D Minor; BERG: Lulu Suite – Mary Lindzey, sop. (Berg)/ Hildegarde Ruetgers, mezzo (Mahler)/ Choeurs de L’ORTF/ Maitrese de l’ORTF/ Orch. National de l’ORTF/ Jean Martinon – Cascavelle (2 CDs)
Two live performances explore French maestro Jean Martinon’s rarely documented fascination with Austro-German repertory, in music by Mahler and Berg.
BERG: Violin Concerto “To the Memory of an Angel”; BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto – Isabelle Faust, v./ Orch. Mozart/ Claudio Abbado – Harmonia mundi
It would appear that violinist Isabelle Faust and conductor Claudio Abbado “conspired” to make the most beautiful rendition of the Berg Concerto they could.
Conductor Fritz Busch in works of MOZART, HINDEMITH, BERG, LARSSON, REGER & BERWALD – Guild
Restored concerts by Fritz Busch expand his recorded legacy and enlighten us as to the power of Hindemith and Lars-Erik Larsson.
Christian Ferras, v. = Concertos of BEETHOVEN & BERG – Audite
The tragically doomed and extraordinarily gifted Christian Ferras appears in two concertos deeply ingrained in his personality, here restored in excellent sound.