Customer Reviews

Luciano Berio: Sinfonia; Eindrücke

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

 

 

This disc of two Luciano Berio works in performance by the Orchestre National de France and Pierre Boulez was originally released on Erato in 1986. Thankfully, Warner Classics reissued it at budget price in 2001 in their "Apex" line, a bargain which the contemporary music afficionado should seek out. As you shall see, I do not think this disc has the best performance of a key Berio work, but nonetheless it has much to recommend itself.

"Sinfonia" for eight voices and orchestra (1968-69) is one of Luciano Berio's greatest works, vast in its proportions and in the musical traditions it incorporates. The eight voices are meant to be jazz singers, and Berio wrote the piece for the Swingle Singers, who appear here in a later lineup. The first two movements are quiet and mysterious. In the first, the singers gently intone selections from Levi-Strauss' retellings of Brazilian myths, made so vague that only the phonetic properties matter. In the second movement "O King", an orchestration of an earlier independent work, the singers slowly build up to the name "Martin Luther King", who had been murdered the year before.

The third movement of "Sinfonia", the extroverted "In ruhig fliessender Bewegung", is the most famous. The skeleton of the work is the second movement from Mahler's "Resurrection" symphony, a little cut-up and reordered. Over this, Berio has a tenor reciting text taken mainly from Samuel Beckett's "The Unnamable" and Berio's own journalistic writings, and the orchestra responds with quotations from fifteen composers. For example, when the narrator uses the term "the lowing cattle, the rush of the stream", we hear part of Beethoven's "Pastorale" symphony, while a singer's cry "This is nothing but an academic exercise" is ironically accompanied by music by Hindemith. Every listener has his own favourite part of this movement, mine is when the narrator says "I have a present for you" and the orchestra responds with that big tutti chord that opens Boulez' "Don" (which is to say "Gift").

The fourth and fifth movements return to a subdued tone. The fourth brings back Levi-Strauss references and is rather brief. But for all my initial passion about the third movement, I find it is the fifth which is the most intriguing and satisfying. Originally "Sinfonia" was written in four movements, but after the first performance, Berio was unhappy that these four movements were not reconciled to each other. In the fifth movement he subsequently wrote, therefore, we hear references in the form of quotation and harmonic development to the original four movements, a savage mix of voices, confused percussion, and threatening trombones a la Per Norgard's fifth symphony. A splendid end to a massive work.

For a long time, this was *the* recording of the "Sinfonia" to have. However, I must say I find it superseded by that on Deutsche Grammophon in the "20/21" series, where Peter Eotvos leads the Goteborgs Symfoniker. In the third movement, Eotvos keeps it going at a very nice clip, creating a dizzying parade of images. Boulez, on the other hand, keeps things quite slow; if one has already heard the Eotvos recording, terms like "molasses" come to mind. Also, Ward Swingle's narration, while it might have worked for Berio in forty years ago, now makes this sound like a dated '60s happening, and the Eotvos performance Nonetheless, Boulez's handling of the other four movements is quite fine, and I certainly invite Berio fans to get this.

The liner notes for "Sinfonia" consist only of Luciano Berio's own programme note, which covers all the basics. However, those enraptured by the piece would do well to seek out David Osmond-Smith's PLAYING ON WORDS: A Guide to Luciano Berio's 'Sinfonia' (University of Chicago, 1987) ISBN 0947854002.

Even if the performance of "Sinfonia" is not my favourite, the following "Eindrucke" for orchestra (1973-74) is very entertaining. Where does one go after one has reconciled himself to the whole classical tradition, giving birth to the first postmodern symphony? Evidentally back to modernism, but of a fresh new type. "Eindrucke" is a quintessential 1970s Berio piece, interested in organically generating material from strict processes, while still remaining dramatic and easily accessible..

I should add that this is an IRCAM recording, meaning that these two works appear in crystal-clear sound. Bottom line: get the Eotvos recording and this, and enjoy a thrilling tour de force of the 20th-century music.

Luciano Berio was commissioned to write a work for the New York Philharmonic's 150th anniversary. What resulted was the Sinfonia, a masterpiece of the twentieth century musical movement. This work combines many of the Italian composers fascinations - from Mahler to Martin Luther King - and sympathizes them. The result is fascinating, stimulating, and thoroughly enjoyable. Boulez's interpretation is really top-notch. He leads the orchestra with great power, gusto, and energy. This vision is evident, especially in the third moment of the piece. Berio here takes the Scherzo from Mahler's second symphony and "pastes" in other famous musical phrases from Debussy, Ravel, Beethoven, Schoenberg and others as well as adding voices, which sustain a dialog throughout the entire movement. Boulez's intellectual approach to music is appreciated here - the result is a crisp, definitive reading of this powerful twentieth century masterpiece.

While I do agree that the Bernstein recording of Berio's masterwork is the better performance of the two, Boulez brings a nouance to his conducting that I think can only come from the fact that the piece had aged somewhat by the time he was conducting it. The piece might be viewed as less topical by that time, but Boulez manages to make it speak to a new audience with the same force that it had the first time it was performed. I personally feel that it is just as meaningful now as ever, regardless of who performs it, but Boulez definitely makes it feel avant garde, even after so much time has passed.
Leaving all the qualitative discussion aside, this recording is available while Bernstein's is not (unless you happen to be lucky enough to know someone with the LP), and this recording includes the additional fifth movement while Bernstein's does not. I agree that Bernstein's should be made available no matter what one might think about its quality, but this recording is at least equally deserving of a listen. I do not agree with the previous reviewer that the sound quality is lacking, so even if one loves the other recording, one should be able to buy this one as well without worrying about getting a badly-produced recording.

This is Berio most famous work for orchestra and its complexity and modern style makes it a perfect work for Pierre Boulez to conduct. He gives this complex work light and makes full use of Berio's unique orchestral sounds and allows the singers to shine through the musical fabric. In this recording, the orchestra is beautiful, the singers and narrator are clearly heard, and the tempos are graceful, yet controled. One thing to note about the third movement of the Sinfonia is Berio's references to other famous works. It is fun to listen to the music and mind the hidden, famous fragments of other scores. In the third movement you will hear Mahler's 2nd Symphony, Debussy's La Mer, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, and Strauss Night of the Rose to name a few. It is an amazing work. BUY THIS CD!

If you are a fan of this great piece and haven't heard the (out of print) recording by Ricardo Chailly and the Concertgebouw -- buy it used, now: Polygram Records, #425832. It has all of the clarity and insight of this Boulez performance, but it also has great big dollops of humor, passion, wonder, mystery, etc.; it lets go. It also includes Berio's late orchestral masterpiece, "Formazione", as well as the chamber orchestra version of the "Folksongs" wonderfully sung by Jard Van Nes. The greatest Berio CD -- program, performance -- I know of.

This disc of two Luciano Berio works in performance by the Orchestre National de France and Pierre Boulez was originally released on Erato in 1986, and it is this version which this Amazon listing describes. However, Warner Classics reissued it at budget price in 2001 in their "Apex" line, a bargain which the contemporary music afficionado should seek out. As you shall see, I do not think this disc has the best performance of a key Berio work, but nonetheless it has much to recommend itself.

"Sinfonia" for eight voices and orchestra (1968-69) is one of Luciano Berio's greatest works, vast in its proportions and in the musical traditions it incorporates. The eight voices are meant to be jazz singers, and Berio wrote the piece for the Swingle Singers, who appear here in a later lineup. The first two movements are quiet and mysterious. In the first, the singers gently intone selections from Levi-Strauss' retellings of Brazilian myths, made so vague that only the phonetic properties matter. In the second movement "O King", an orchestration of an earlier independent work, the singers slowly build up to the name "Martin Luther King", who had been murdered the year before.

The third movement of "Sinfonia", the extroverted "In ruhig fliessender Bewegung", is the most famous. The skeleton of the work is the second movement from Mahler's "Resurrection" symphony, a little cut-up and reordered. Over this, Berio has a tenor reciting text taken mainly from Samuel Beckett's "The Unnamable" and Berio's own journalistic writings, and the orchestra responds with quotations from fifteen composers. For example, when the narrator uses the term "the lowing cattle, the rush of the stream", we hear part of Beethoven's "Pastorale" symphony, while a singer's cry "This is nothing but an academic exercise" is ironically accompanied by music by Hindemith. Every listener has his own favourite part of this movement, mine is when the narrator says "I have a present for you" and the orchestra responds with that big tutti chord that opens Boulez' "Don" (which is to say "Gift").

The fourth and fifth movements return to a subdued tone. The fourth brings back Levi-Strauss references and is rather brief. But for all my initial passion about the third movement, I find it is the fifth which is the most intriguing and satisfying. Originally "Sinfonia" was written in four movements, but after the first performance, Berio was unhappy that these four movements were not reconciled to each other. In the fifth movement he subsequently wrote, therefore, we hear references in the form of quotation and harmonic development to the original four movements, a savage mix of voices, confused percussion, and threatening trombones a la Per Norgard's fifth symphony. A splendid end to a massive work.

For a long time, this was *the* recording of the "Sinfonia" to have. However, I must say I find it superseded by that on Deutsche Grammophon in the "20/21" series, where Peter Eotvos leads the Goteborgs Symfoniker. In the third movement, Eotvos keeps it going at a very nice clip, creating a dizzying parade of images. Boulez, on the other hand, keeps things quite slow; if one has already heard the Eotvos recording, terms like "molasses" come to mind. Also, Ward Swingle's narration, while it might have worked for Berio in forty years ago, now makes this sound like a dated '60s happening, and the Eotvos performance Nonetheless, Boulez's handling of the other four movements is quite fine, and I certainly invite Berio fans to get this.

The liner notes for "Sinfonia" consist only of Luciano Berio's own programme note, which covers all the basics. However, those enraptured by the piece would do well to seek out David Osmond-Smith's PLAYING ON WORDS: A Guide to Luciano Berio's 'Sinfonia' (University of Chicago, 1987) ISBN 0947854002.

Even if the performance of "Sinfonia" is not my favourite, the following "Eindrucke" for orchestra (1973-74) is very entertaining. Where does one go after one has reconciled himself to the whole classical tradition, giving birth to the first postmodern symphony? Evidentally back to modernism, but of a fresh new type. "Eindrucke" is a quintessential 1970s Berio piece, interested in organically generating material from strict processes, while still remaining dramatic and easily accessible..

I should add that this is an IRCAM recording, meaning that these two works appear in crystal-clear sound. Bottom line: get the Eotvos recording and this, and enjoy a thrilling tour de force of the 20th-century music.

Boulez's recording of "Sinfonia" is fascinating in that it creates a revisionist view of Berio as a far "cooler" composer than he was. Granted, the complicated score works on that level, and the reserve with which Boulez interprets lends an organicism to the work's slow movements, and a direction to the first.

Just a word of correction to other reviewers: the original LP, which is quite outstanding, has Berio conducting, not Bernstein, and it lacks the fifth movement, which gives it an almost elegiac quality. What's more, while--through Boulez's championing and elsewhere--Berio has been viewed as a rather "formal" or cerebral composer, his original recording is, if anything, remarkably romantic. It's interesting to see how the London recording (rather cool, crystalline--even more reserved than Boulez) and the Boulez contrast with the Berio and, to a lesser extent, the fine Chailly recording in their attitudes towards the third movement's "Mahlerian" text. A conductor's attitude towards Mahler (ironic, detached, involved, "romantic") goes a long way towards showing what kind of message their Sinfonia will give.

The Sinfonia was constructed with more than a little doubleness in mind, and, to that extent, the Boulez is a valuable, ostensibly dispassionate essay on all Berio's worldview circa '68. Two interesting counterpoints: Boulez took over for Bernstein at the NYPhil in '69. Also, while writing the Sinfonia, Berio wrote a widely circulated (christian science monitor) critique of the twelve-tone establishment, although he quotes Boulez during Sinfonia. Boulez's championing of Berio suggests that ideological lines are not nearly as solid as we might at first presume.

This piece put Berio's name on the map. The young Italian composer was invited to New York metropolis to conduct this in the late Sixties, and his reputation hasn't looked back since. The work was well played in Europe but was a claw in the throats of institutionalized orchestral corridors here. It has only been the last ten years where we have heard this 20th century masterwork with any degree of frequency. And I don't know why. Berio's musical language is the most accessible around,with a direct emphasis on facile textures and points of density, as well as adapting images and conceptions from the current buzz for vocal materials, as Martin Luther King,the Sixties graffitti,and Claude-Levi Strauss. If anyone remembers this work it is the collage-container movement "In ruhig Fliessender Bewegung",where Berio seamed,stitched and pasted objects from the edifice of musical repertoire with burdened emphasis on the late Romantics Strauss,Bruckner and especially Mahler. This movement utilizing the St-Anthony's preaching to the fish with the Bruckner "Fourth Symphony" is indeed memorable and wisked you away into self-conscious unreality. The initital plan was to use a laundry list of classics, and he did Debussy,Stravinsky,Stockhausen and Boulez even all made it,but the Catania Library in Sicily where he wrote this movement had limited resources. The various vocalists here who recite and sing are always a powerful point as the overly self-conscious quips coming from a male voice. "I think I will recite my poetry now" Thank you Mr. Boulez" A heightened hype was part of Berio's solidarity with the energy that was in the air in the late Sixties. Boulez places these vocalists within the orchestra so to absorb them into the texture as opposed to having them inhabit the front of the orchestra. This is indeed a precise interpretation. Boulez knows this work and admires Berio's music perhaps more than any other Italian, including Verdi.The work has not weathered itself well, and you feel the date and the times.Berio was the analytic experimentor,hip with the times(,he helped the Beatles in the studio), He is and was a master orchestrator,learning and finding a voice, a not altogether easy task coming from the relative cultural poverty that was part of Italy after the war. Still"Sinfonia" it was a high point in the history of music.

Listening to this recorded muddle of Berio's masterpiece sent me back to my old Columbia LP with the Swingle Singers and The New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. If Sony classical had the good sense to re issue the SUPERLATIVE Bernstein performance it would blow this poorly miked,unbalanced, unispired powder puff right out of the water. The recording engineers did Berio great disservice undermiking/mixing the orchestra here and adding hall ambiance to the New Swingle Singers voices. It sounds like it was recorded in a barn with a Jr High School PA System. Once you've ever heard the Bernstein you will find this performance offensive. Boulez, despite his reputation for avantgarde music, clearly misses the mark on this one.

Berio's Sinfonia has already achieved classic status since its composition in 1968-69 (it was premiered in 1968, but a movement was added in 1969) - in fact it has been hailed as the way forward for music after the often somewhat aimless experiments of the 60s. Scored for orchestra and eight (amplified) voices - used to speak, whisper and yell rather than sing, it is an almost dizzying assembly of quotations and colors, twist and turns and anxiousness in an extremely inventive, post-serial style.

The first movements, based on texts by Lévi-Strauss (and in fact also the form is based on the anthropologist's work - while certain mythological texts follow something akin to sonata or fugue form, there is another, "mythical" form (according to Lévi-Strauss) with no musical equivalent, and of course someone had to take him at his word and use it as a basis for a musical work). The second is an integration of Berio's own O King, dedicated to Martin Luther King and makes much inventive use of whole-tone scales.

The third movement is probably the one that most struck listeners back then, and still does - at least on first hearing, with its marvelous, collage-like integration of quotations from Mahler's second symphony (in addition to quotations from, at least, Ravel, Debussy, Hindemith, Brahms, Beethoven, Webern, Berg, Berlioz, Richard Strauss, Pousseur, Schönberg, Bach, Boulez, Stockhausen, Stravinsky and Berio himself - all chosen, apparently, because of their motivic, rhythmic or structural likeness to the scherzo of the Mahler). Overlaid the music is a surrealist recital of various text fragments (Beckett in particular, and Berio's own diary) - it is, to paraphrase Berio himself, something of a fantastic, magical voyage through musical history; but the end-result is a striking musical language that is entirely Berio's own, with its own kind of tension and resolution. The fourth movement, originally intended as a kind of coda, is structurally connected to the second, and the fifth spins an epicycle thematically connected to the first, with the thematic reliance on the Mahler quotation still flowing submerged in the texture as a pulse.

All in all, the Sinfonia is one of the unquestionable masterpieces of the 20th century, and the Boulez interpretation here already a classic - a performance with energy and a power, and an unerring precision not really challenged since (and where the vocalists are, importantly, integrated into the orchestral sound rather than functioning as soloists in the traditional sense - although one might object that the balance is a little wrong, and the voices are somewhat too loud), even though it might not displace the other available alternatives. The coupling, Eindrücke, is perhaps a tougher nut. It is based on an amalgamation of two earlier works, `Still' and `Bewegung', which results in a surreal, almost-melody-like procession - and interesting work, though not of the level of invention of the Sinfonia, and well played here as well. Sound quality is excellent, and in sum this recording is something of a must.