Customer Reviews

Berg: Wozzeck / Schoenberg: Erwartung

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This performance is indeed intense, violent even, but so is the opera. And there's plenty here to enjoy--take, for instance, the chorus of snoring soldiers in the barracks. Wozzeck is undoubtedly the masterpiece of the 1st half of the 20th-Century. It's more to the point, for my taste, than Lulu, and isn't bogged down with late-Romantic lusciousness. The story is chilling, the music awesome.

Berg captures the horrifying buildup of mad tension in the Buchner play perfectly in this opera.

Dohnanyi handles the orchestra superbly as the tension builds to the jarring chord that represents Wozzeck's act of murder, never charging ahead too fast, never flagging. Also wonderful is the nice tight sound of the recording which really reveals the contrapuntal richness and complexity of Berg's music.

It is also nice to have Schonberg's interesting Erwartung on this disc. It is another chilling tale of love and death that takes the form of a short operatic monologue.

I would recommend this recording with hesitation. Great music and great sound. Enjoy!

The Vienna Phil. didn't get to show off in Wozzeck until their spectacular live performance on DG under Abbado, whre they completely overshadow what's happening onstage. This Decca set from 1979 finds them playing beautifully, but Dohnanyi is too restrained and cautious--a sign of what was to come in his career. The sonics are good but noticeably edgy when the music gets loud.

For anyone who wants a taut, detailed reading, this could have been a good one except for the lamentable casting of Eberhard Waechter in the title role. Long past his vocal prime, Wachter doesn't have enough voice for the part, is unable to push the inner anguish so essential to the character, and seems unwilling to attempt sprechstimme, instead simply singing, which isn't what Berg wanted. Anja Silja makes a dramatic, if wobbly Marie, doing much better with the sprechstimme but with a lack of vulnerability--she's as tough as the Nurse in Frau Ohne Schatten. In all, since this version is out of print, I don't see any reason to search for it.