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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perhaps the BEST Gurrelieder performance,
By
This review is from: Schoenberg - Gurre-Leider ~ 4 Songs, Op. 22 / Napier, Minton, Nimsgern, J. Thomas, BBC SO, Boulez (Audio CD)
When I first heard Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, in 1980 the impact of hearing this massive score was quite overwhelming, even for someone who knew Mahler's symphonies. It was then played very infrequently and recordings rarer still. This was a piece that sounded like no other, an impression only enhanced when I heard this remarkable recording by Boulez made during the heyday of his tenure with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. At the time, there was no orchestra anywhere that played Schoenberg as well as the BBCSO under Boulez so it is no surprise to find that Boulez wanted to record Gurrelieder with the BBC rather than with the New York Philharmonic of whom he was then chief conductor.
Somehow a conductor has to capture the world of late, hyper-romanticism which is bordering into the early modern and expressionism. A cycle of 20 songs and chorus structured around significant development of Wagner's leitmotif, it combines the sweeping power of Mahler with the grandiose that out reaches Strauss but has a raw edge that is unmistakably Schoenberg. It is one of the great transitional works and in part 3 Schoenberg wrote some of his most daring and radical orchestration. The danger in Gurrelieder is to treat this piece as an opera without staging and let the singers loose with vocal virtuosity, when that is not really part of Schoenberg's conception. (I should point out since there are a few tags on this work, that Gurrelieder is NOT an oratorio. It has nothing to do with and nothing from the bible). Drama is not the central element here, rather a more abstract concept of the interplay of poems and their moods that should play themselves out in the listeners' mind. This is much more in keeping with what Schoenberg was doing at the time in works like Verklarte Nacht and his smaller songs, and the same compositional processes are to be found in Gurrelieder. This is Schoenberg striking out for the new and we have to remember in 1900 the 140 piece orchestra with its 26 piece brass section and was new. As an interpretation this performance is without equal. This recording captures Boulez at a time he was performing Schoenberg with the same energy found in his Domaine Musicale recordings of Schoenberg. Schoenberg's most daring orchestral writing is here given the full treatment and that is due entirely to Boulez aiming to be true to Schoenberg's score. The playing of the BBCSO is quite simply superb and shows just what a fine orchestra they had become under Boulez. Although there are many moments of quite breath-taking playing their stunning virtuosity comes through most in the orchestral passage that concludes the Jester's song. The highlight of the whole performance is however Gunter Reich's interpretation of the melodrama, a performance that has never been equalled. Contrasting some other versions will highlight what I mean. Ozawa places the piece in the nineteenth century with the most strident passages watered down and the narrator's Sprechstimme passage downplayed to the point it is a disaster. Rattle tries to play much of the piece as a giant chamber work and delivers a controlled, wholly unconvincing and lukewarm reading which is neither one thing or another despite the excellent playing of the BPO. Sinopoli indulges in the lush orchestral textures and whilst he obtains quite exceptional clarity of texture, there is a lack of a certain rawness that is needed to bring this music fully to life. Levine's is a good performance even if it does put one more in mind of Wagner than Schoenberg but the balance of his orchestra is far from good with a distant brass section too much of the time. Perhaps the best of the others is Ferencsik but even here, there needs to be a far greater sweep to the orchestral sound. The technical problems of recording this piece in the 1970's where enormous. We take it for granted today the largest pieces can be rendered with near perfect sound quality. When this recording was done, it was pushing the limits of the technology in a venue that was inadequate in size and sadly it wasn't quite up to handling the very largest sections of Schoenberg's score with what we would expect today. That said it is still a remarkable achievement and in the context of this performance such issues do not stay in the mind for long. What I find to be the most important thing in this performance is Schoenberg's music and the concept he had for the cycle and that is what Boulez and the BBCSO realise and why this recording is still the benchmark more than 35 years after it was done. An added bonus is the fabulous performance of the 4 Songs Op. 22. These pieces are hard enough to come across at the best of times and to have them in such a good performance should not be missed.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truest to the score and Schoenberg's vision,
This review is from: Schoenberg - Gurre-Leider ~ 4 Songs, Op. 22 / Napier, Minton, Nimsgern, J. Thomas, BBC SO, Boulez (Audio CD)
Most other conductors treat the Gurrelieder as an opera without staging, while Boulez treats it as something a bit more abstract and refined, like a Mahler symphony or Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex. I think this approach is the correct one, and I LOVE this recording. If you like a more operatic approach, with vocal fireworks, then this is not the recording for you. I think Boulez' goal was to produce a recording that was as accurate as possible both to the printed notes and Schoenberg's vision. Individual flourishes that either he or the singers could have brought to the table are avoided. The ego and personality of the conductor and soloists clearly are subservient to Schoenberg's score. That said, I think that all of the soloists were brilliantly "cast" and all give wonderful performances. All soloists seem to completely inhabit their characters, but in a reflective, at times understated way. This works for me, because I speak German and understand (and love) the text. Dramatically overreaching interpretations (such as some of the solo performances in the other recordings) distract from the overall tragic/dramatic effect. For example, in this recording, the stern, stately, clear Sprechstimme narration by Gunther Reich (an excellent baritone singer) effectively builds to the climax of the entire work and can move me to tears. Compare that to Werner Klemperer's sentimental, microphone-amplified narration (he largely ignores the Sprechstimme notation) in the Ozawa recording, which I simply can not listen to. Another reviewer has pointed out that sonically this recording leaves something to be desired, in particular that loud sections sound muddy, and this is true. I remember hearing another recording (either the Ferencsik or the Chailly, can't remember), and marveling at how clear the woodwinds and brass sounded. I could hear a lot more detail there then I can in the Boulez recording. But even with this flaw, I highly recommend the Boulez recording.
10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
a performance with some major problems,
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This review is from: Schoenberg - Gurre-Leider ~ 4 Songs, Op. 22 / Napier, Minton, Nimsgern, J. Thomas, BBC SO, Boulez (Audio CD)
As a general rule I'm a big fan of Boulez's recordings of modern works, but I have one major problem with this work. When a conductor has a work with a very large orchestra the conductor has to be particularly careful about making sure that the sounds stay distinct; otherwise the individual instruments are going to get lost in the large sound of the orchestra as a whole. The sound here sounds great at the softer moments of the work, but there are critical moments that are botched. For example, the sounds in the hunting song for male choruses are very uneven. And the finale for dawn is a total mess; the sounds disappear into one, loud blaring noise. I've heard recordings that have handled these forces much better.
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