Customer Reviews

Berg: Lulu Suite, Altenberg-Lieder / Abbado, Price

5 star:		(4)
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This recording is remarkable in that while Abbado, and the wonderful London Symphony Orchestra's players, are playing mostly atonal music that can seem downright strange, dissonant, and strident, especially to ears that are not used to Berg, they have no trouble conveying the beauty, lusciousness, and excitement of much of this music. I find this particularly true in the beginning and end of the "Lulu Suite," the final movement ("Marsch") of Berg's "Three Pieces for Orchestra," and the final selection of the five "Altenberg" lieder. Yet, the entire recording is a masterpiece! In some of the "Lulu Suite," and all of the five lieder after Altenberg, Abbado, and the orchestra, are abetted by the beautiful, and insightful, singing of a young Margaret Price, then quite in her prime. Especially in the Altenberg, Miss Price, whose German diction is flawless, lives up to the highest calling of her art, in that, through her dedication and total immersion in these songs, she gives them a relevance and immediacy, that should help even those most adverse to modern and atonal music, find them insightful and thought-provoking.

Berg is one of those composers who has a deep connection with passion. Most of his music, in my opinion, is just filled with such deep, raw human expression that tickles and pokes at the soul in the most relevant way. With this being said, a good performance/recording would do just that, and this CD did not fail in this regard. Upon hearing the first chord of the Lulu Suite - a gripping, unsettled, pseudo-jazzy chord - I knew that I was in for a treat. Margaret Price sings excellently (despite a sharp high note in the third mvt of the Lulu suite), and the orchestra/conductor has provided an excellent interpretation of these pieces. If one wishes to have Berg orchestral literature in his/her repertoire, this CD is a must have.

REMARKABLE RECORDING AT A GOOD PRICE IN SPITE OF THE RARETY OF THIS PRODUCT
A REAL PLEASURE OF AUDITION

This really is close to perfection. When Abbado made these recordings, in 1972, he was in a golden period of his career, leading the LSO with energy and brilliance (he became principal conductor seven years later), but more than that, he evoked a sense of joy and elan that I don't associate with the older Abbado. The secret to his thoroughly enjoyable alba Berg readings is that he knows that dissonance isn't supposed to hurt you. When Schoenberg claimed to have liberated the dissonance, he meant that it would join the other chords, the consonant ones, and become beautiful. If anyone can carry out that promise, it's Berg. Critics often point out his saving graces: a Mahlerian sense of tumultuous emotion, a profound romantic intensity, a melodic gift, and a natural link to all tings Viennese in the past. If you love those qualities, then performances of Berg's music should deliver them.

Abbado does. His way with dissonance doesn't hurt, because he finds the joy of a Strauss waltz or a high-stepping marching band or a jazzy riff on the saxophone, and he gives you that joy directly. The dissonance (meaning both the 12-tone system and atonality in general) is liberated only through enjoyment. On this CD the Lulu Suite will tell the tale. If you can respond to its neo-Mahlerian variety, expression, and sheer fun, the rest will come around more easily. There's no doubt that the Three Pieces for Orchestra are more daunting, and the Altenberg Lieder more aloof. At the time of its release, these impeccable readings by Margaret Price at her most lustrous were the only version in the catalog. We've had others since-- including a remake by Abbado himself with the Vienna Phil. -- and Jessye Norman's set is one to be reckoned with, but Price is more immediate and approachable.

The whole point to this CD is to take down the fences separating the ordinary listener form dissonance, and I think it succeeds, abetted by the LSO's great playing and DG's vivid analogue sound. A total winner.