Orchestral Works

Webern (Artist), Sinopoli (Artist), Skd (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 21, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B00001SIBO
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #458,815 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Im Sommerwind: Ruhig bewegt

2. Passacaglia Op.1: Sehr massig, Tempo I

3. Six Orchestral Pieces Op. 6: I. Etwas bewegte

4. Six Orchestral Pieces Op. 6: II. Bewegt

5. Six Orchestral Pieces Op. 6: III. Zart bewegt

6. Six Orchestral Pieces Op. 6: IV. Langsam marcia funebre

7. Six Orchestral Pieces Op. 6: V. Sehr langsam

8. Six Orchestral Pieces Op. 6: VI. Zart bewegt

9. Five Orchestral Pieces Op.10: I. Sehr ruhig und zart

10. Five Orchestral Pieces Op.10: II. Lebhaft und zart bewegt

11. Five Orchestral Pieces Op.10: III. Sehr langsam und ausserst ruhig

12. Five Orchestral Pieces Op.10: IV. Fliessend, ausserst zart

13. Five Orchestral Pieces Op.10: V. Sehr fliessend

14. Symphony Op.21: I. Ruhig schreitend

15. Symphony Op.21: II. Variationen - Thema: Sehr ruhig- Variation 1-7

16. Concerto Op. 24 For Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Violin, Viola And Piano: I. Etwas lebhaft

17. Concerto Op. 24 For Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Violin, Viola And Piano: II. Sehr langsam

18. Concerto Op. 24 For Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Violin, Viola And Piano: III. Sehr rasch

19. Variations Op. 30: Lebhaft

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sinopoli is a highly valuable contrast to Boulez, March 14, 2000

By 

Ian K. Hughes (San Mateo, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Orchestral Works (Audio CD)

Sinopoli's renditions of these pieces are intense and passionate. Possibly less refined than Boulez in separating all the "strands" of polyphony ( though Sinopoli is by no means lax in that regard ), he and the wonderful Dresden orchestra bring more vitality and life to these masterpieces than most other performers. Also, the TELDEC recording is superb ( note that Maestro Sinopoli can be heard breathing with quite some excitement in some pieces ) as it is with other Sinopoli and Barenboim releases ( Berg, Bruckner ). Highly recommended for those who are looking for a more overt connection between Webern and the late ( or "post" ) romantic Austro-Germanic composers ( Bruckner,Mahler, Strauss, early Schoenberg ), these performances stress more of the link with the past than the ( Boulezian ) leap into the future.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exquisite, pellucid, yet enigmatic miniatures, March 24, 2002

By 

R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Orchestral Works (Audio CD)

Webern's "Symphony" (op. 21) is like light passing through a slowly revolving prism, revealing irridescent hues you've never seen before. Following his "Passacaglia" (op. 1), which clarifies but doesn't break with the Romanticism of Brahms, Webern composed 4 masterful orchestral miniatures. "6 Pieces" (op. 6) and "5 Pieces" (op. 10) are incredibly brief, in the atonal style pioneered by Webern's teacher Schoenberg. They met with quite different fates -- the "6 Pieces" provoked a "Le Sacre"-style riot at its Vienna premiere in 1913, and Webern fled into hiding. The "5 Pieces" wasn't publicly performed until 1924, at a festival in Zurich, 10 years after it was written. It was widely acclaimed, establishing Webern's international reputation. (Thanks to John Keillor for these details.) His masterpieces, in my opinion, are the serial works -- "Symphony" (op. 21) and "Variations" (op. 30). Despite their brevity (under 5 minutes and 7 minutes respectively), these are two of the greatest compositions of the 20th century. Webern here developed Schoenberg's 12 tone rows into something exquisite, far more beautiful than anything his teacher created. These works, along with the String Trio and Quartet (op. 20 and 28), became the main influence on the "Darmstadt School" of the 1950s (Boulez, Ligeti, Nono, Stockhausen, & co.).

This disc is one of two that collect Webern's orchestral works. While Sinopoli and the Staatskapelle Dresden are better recorded (with Teldec's signature sound!), I give Dohnanyi and Cleveland a slight edge in the interpretation. Dohnanyi achieves a smooth, homogenous texture, while Sinopoli creates wider dynamics and a greater separation of instruments. Dohnanyi's Webern is abstract, cold and restrained, while Sinopoli's Webern is more emotional, warmer and lusher by comparison, a reading that consciously emphasizes the continuity with Mahler. The two discs contain the same material, with one exception -- Dohnanyi includes Webern's arrangement of Bach's "Fuga Ricercata a 6," a fascinating exercise in pointillism, breaking the music into constituent cells. Sinopoli instead includes the "Concerto" (op. 24), a Bach-influenced composition from the same period. The Dohnanyi booklet contains a great photo of Webern, with a tragic expression absolutely apropos to the music, but the cover is a photo of Dohnanyi, following a tradition in classical music which I detest. The Sinopoli/Teldec booklet features instead a photo of a haunting nature sculpture by the British artist Andy Goldsworthy, and keeps the photo of Sinopoli inside, and so it wins the graphic design competition! (Sinopoli was recording a Second Vienna School series for Teldec before his tragic recent death. The other recordings, of works by Schoenberg and Berg, all feature stunning cover photos of Goldsworthy sculptures.)

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Webern with guts, January 29, 2001

By 

Scott Spires (Prague, Czech Republic) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Orchestral Works (Audio CD)

These orchestral pieces are played in chronological order, so if you listen straight through you can hear the startling progression from the overripe Wagnerism of "Im Sommerwind" to the incredible compression of the late works, when Webern rations each note like a starving man trying to make a slice of bread last a whole week. Give this disc an hour of your time, and you can experience his entire creative arc.

The performances are not clinical and cold, as can easily be the case with this music. Rather, they are powerful, intense, and even upsetting. The scorching Passacaglia sounds like a late Mahler symphony compressed into 10 minutes of music. The other pieces remind you that Webern was living in the same city as Freud and Hitler. This is indispensable modern music; but its romantic roots are also made perfectly clear here.