Complete Webern [Box Set] [Box set]

Anton Webern (Composer), Pierre Boulez (Conductor), Berliner Philharmoniker (Orchestra), Emerson String Quartet (Orchestra), Ensemble InterContemporain (Orchestra), BBC Singers (Orchestra), Francoise Pollet (Performer), Christiane Oelze (Performer), Krystian Zimerman (Performer), Gidon Kremer (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Francoise Pollet, Christiane Oelze, Krystian Zimerman, Gidon Kremer
• Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker, Emerson String Quartet, Ensemble InterContemporain, BBC Singers
• Conductor: Pierre Boulez
• Composer: Anton Webern
• Audio CD (May 9, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 6
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B00004R9F0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #88,075 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #23 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Modern, 20th, & 21st Century > Instruments > Keyboard > Piano
  • #35 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Modern, 20th, & 21st Century > Forms & Genres > Variations
  • #39 in Music > Classical > Chamber Music > Trios

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Pierre Boulez's Complete Webern Edition appears just over two decades after his last traversal. Well, it's not literally complete, but does have enough early works to set the mature ones in the right context. These days, Webern is no longer seen so much as a new music guru as he is a major composer, pure and simple--his expression as concise as it is intense. Performancewise, there's a quality of musicianship here that few previous recordings have matched; familiarity with the idiom certainly plays its part, but so does Boulez's belief that what we're hearing needs to be presented with conviction. Try the Passacaglia, sensuous music that combines the soundworld of Brahms and Mahler, or the string quartet or orchestra pieces--miniatures in duration, but whole dramas of expression.

Ease of performance doesn't always make this music easy to come to grips with: the song cycles need several listenings to grasp the meaning behind the compression, while the later instrumental and choral works have a luminous austerity that looks back to Bach and beyond to Renaissance masters such as Schütz and Isaac. While much of Webern's music has long been admired, only now is it becoming possible to respond to it through the heart as well as the brain. This set, superbly packaged and comprehensively documented, marks a major step forward, and deserves investigating by anyone keen to appreciate something of the music's quiet, calm essence in an often strident, dislocated century. --Richard Whitehouse

Product Description

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: WEBERN,A.
Title: COMPLETE WEBERN
Street Release Date: 05/09/2000
Domestic
Genre: CLASSICAL COMPOSERS

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

92 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five stars and a bullet, June 12, 2000

By 

"lexo-2" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Webern [Box Set] (Audio CD)

Pierre Boulez, the enfant not-very-terrible-any-more of French music, has surpassed himself. Twenty-two years ago, CBS released his Complete Works of Anton Webern, and it's remained the definitive Webern collection. Until, as they say in movie trailers, now.

This consists of the three Webern albums Boulez has recorded for DG over the past five years or so, plus everything else Webern ever wrote. It thus scores straightaway over the earlier CBS/Sony set, which was restricted to works that had opus numbers and filled three CDs. This one includes the charming early songs, the equally early "Im Sommerwind" for orchestra and a number of posthumous and otherwise non-Opus works that didn't make it onto the earlier set. Webern is a composer whose entire output takes about six hours to listen to in its entirety, and it's all here, on six CDs.

That's fine; is it any good? Well, it's digitally recorded, and if ever a composer was born for CD, it's Webern. The pianissimos are more ppp than ever, thanks to better recording techniques. Boulez himself has also unbuttoned a bit. His earlier set, recorded between 1967 and 1972, was high on austerity and, if it fell down at all, did so on emotion. The older Boulez (he's 75 this year) is more relaxed about letting tuttis blare and climaxes, well, climax. The result is both as intellectually satisfying as we've come to expect from Boulez, and warmly expressive; in general, a more moving and less didactic set of recordings than the previous lot. And all the better for it, as far as this composer (and this listener) is concerned.

There are many benefits of a digital set, not the least being the better registration of timbral variety, which Webern (as is well known) made into a compositional principle. Even those allergic to twelve-tone music can't help but be ravished by the intricate sweetness of his arrangement of the Bach six-part fugue from the "Musical Offering". The arrangement of Schubert's German Dances has been re-recorded, and can be heard now in all its sprightliness. (The CBS/Sony set has an archive recording conducted by Webern himself in the thirties, but dodgy sound quality prevented it from shining forth properly, despite Webern's witty conducting.)

This is, for my money, the best classical recording that's likely to be released this year, if not for the next ten years. I don't know whether it's a complement to the CBS/Sony set or a replacement for it, but either way it's a wonderful package. Congratulations to all involved.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank You Boulez, October 22, 2001

By 

Jack Jones (Woodland Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Webern [Box Set] (Audio CD)

If you are a fan of the "New Vienna School" (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern) or 20th century "classical" or "serious" music, this disk set is very rewarding. Beautifully recorded and packaged, and with equally good liner notes, it is a treat to strap on the headphones and listen.

I debated between buying this or Boulez's older Webern set and went with this one. There is much more music on this set because pieces without opus numbers are included. They lend a lot of insight into his "published" works. I also went with this set because it is a modern digital recording, the previous set being from the early 70's. I will often side with a classic recording when needed-performance over sound. Here, I'm happy to report, the listener gets both. Every detail is captured.

Thank you very much Pierre Boulez and DG for making this project happen. Please keep the Schoenberg and Berg disks coming. And thank you Anton Webern for continually opening my ears.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poesia do silêncio, January 25, 2008

By 

Daniel S. De Azevedo "Daniel Sampaio" (João Pessoa, PB Brazil) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Complete Webern [Box Set] (Audio CD)

Conheci a obra de Anton Webern ao ler a Poesia Concreta, especificamente a obra e a série de poemas "poetamenos" de Augusto de Campos. Este autor, inclusive, escreveu vários artigos sobre a obra de Webern, destacando a regência de Boulez, a qual está registrada neste boxset.

Mas ainda estou ouvindo esta preciosidade - digerindo-a aos poucos. Até onde ouvi, veio-me como uma bela aquisição.