Anton Webern: Complete Works, Opp. 1-31 [IMPORT]

Anton Webern (Artist), Pierre Boulez (Artist), Heather Harper (Artist), Charles Rosen (Artist), Isaac Stern (Artist), Halina Lukomska (Artist), Colin Bradbury (Artist), John [guitar] Williams (Artist), Daniel Majeske (Artist), Robert Marcellus (Artist), Abraham Weinstein (Artist), Barry McDaniel (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 8, 1991)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Import
• Label: Sbme Import
• ASIN: B000002707
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #211,608 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
This collection presents all Webern's works with opus numbers in chronological order, allowing listeners to scrutinize the inner workings of this influential composer's intense, compressed style from the lush Passacaglia to the starkness of his late vocal works. A broadcast recording of Webern conducting a group of Schubert Dances makes a lively bonus. --Jed Distler

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The original and still the best, November 24, 2003

By	Edward Wright (Toronto, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Boulez's seminal original recordings of Webern are still important today. They capture the extraordinary distance this composer travelled from his tonal opus 1 passacaglia, though the atonal expressionism of the opus 5 and opus 6 pieces, the extreme compression of the opus 9 bagatelles, the contrapuntal abstraction of the mid-period songs to the serial masterpieces of his later years. These pieces still divide concert audiences today--I've been to Webern performances where half the audience was electrified and the other half clearly wanted to be elsewhere--but their historical significance cannot be denied. I believe their musical significance cannot either: close on a dozen of these works are amongst the finest pieces the 20th century has to offer. This set of performances, dating from the late 1960s and early 1970s and largely recorded under the direction by Pierre Boulez, has long since been regarded as being as close to definitive as one can get. I wouldn't go so far--there are occasional less impressive performances (such as the saxophone quartet) amongst the very fine ones. However, as complete sets go, I find the performances here largely superior to Boulez's more recent traversal on DG.

Technically, this set is not a Complete Works. It only includes those works that Webern published with an opus number, with the addition of the composer's wonderful orchestral transcription of the Ricercare a 6 from Bach's Musical Offering, and an old recording of Webern conducting his orchestrations of Schubert's German Dances. There are more works included on Boulez's rival set on DG--at twice the price--but most of what you gain are juvenilia.

And, for those who remain unconvinced that they'd like Webern, check out http://www.antonwebern.com -- a website that has free streaming mp3s of several of the recordings on this set. Listen to a few of them a few times (though skip the opus 16-18 songs, some of his driest works), and then decide.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Boulez's Webern -- brilliant modern miniatures, November 26, 2001

By	R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

All 31 works that Webern gave official Opus numbers on 3 discs, conducted by Boulez (not Kolbe!), with the Juilliard Quartet and the London Symphony Orchestra, and a superb booklet with commentary and lyrics -- so why only 4 stars? My objection is the strictly chronological presentation, and the fact that I am not won over by Webern's vocal works -- I would vastly prefer grouping the music by form. Everything is brilliantly performed, and Charles Rosen, who accompanies sopranos on piano on several pieces, plays with sparkling luminosity. But the reason I sought out this collection is because I wanted to hear Boulez's versions of Webern's masterpieces, the "Symphony (Op. 21)" and "Variations for Orchestra (Op. 30)," as well as the string trios and quartets. Here these instrumental works are mixed among the lieders, Webern's many vocal works, and I find this frustrating. I prefer hearing the instrumental pieces grouped together, as on the Dohnanyi or Sinopoli discs of orchestral works (see my reviews of both), or the Schoenberg or Emerson Quartet's discs of the string trios and quartets (see my reviews of both). Unfortunately there is not a Boulez disc comparable to the Dohnanyi (on London) or Sinopoli (on Teldec). So it's either this Sony box or the several more recently recorded discs on DG, unless of course you are a total Webern fanatic and want the Ultra-Complete box with all the numbered AND un-numbered pieces...

It's really hard to fault this excellent Webern collection. Obviously if you have a more catholic appreciation of Webern's music than I (including the vocal works), my criticism is irrelevant. If you are a completist on a budget, this is a clear choice over the more expensive box. But if you are looking for an introduction to Webern's music, the best of which is some of the best of the 20th century in my opinion, I suggest that you begin with 1) Dohnanyi and the Cleveland Orchestra, and 2) the Schoenberg Quartet.

[There is a mistake on the site. Pierre Boulez is the conductor, not Helmuth Kolbe. Careful inspection of the box reveals that Kolbe was the engineer...]

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aged well, August 29, 2001

By	John Bolender (Ankara Turkey) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is hard to believe that the originals of these recordings are about 30 years old or so. The sound is very clear and precise without having a dry recorded-in-the-living-room sound. In fact, the Six Orchestral Pieces sounds clearer and sharper than some more recent recordings that I've heard. I do wish though that the accompanying booklet would comment more on the emotions and poetic themes in Webern's music. It is not all just about permutations of series. In fact, dwelling on these mathematical aspects of the music helps to perpetuate a stereotype about Webern's music having no emotional component at all. Anyone who listens sympathetically, however, most realize that the emotions in the music are intense indeed -- even overpowering to the sensitive and open-minded listener.