Customer Reviews

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder; Sir Simon Rattle; Berlin Philharmonic & soloists

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Before Schoenberg yielded his super-abundance to God, there was the concept of Gurrelieder. It's the only reason I trust him; the only reason his later works stay in my collection and get taken for a drive once and awhile. The composition was completed, (with the exception of the final chorus), in 1901 and the ensuing orchestration was slow-going: Schoenberg set the work aside in 1903 and then finally took it up again in 1910, finishing the remainder of Part III and recasting some earlier stretches. By this time his Five Pieces and Second String Quartet were well behind him.

How hard it must have been to come back to a piece seven monumental years later and recapture the orchestrational spirit of a younger self. It's not just a matter of the older Schoenberg having gained the technique to paint with more vividness and intensity-he was pretty darn good early on!-the composer had also developed an entirely new way of looking at orchestration. Those huge old swaths of sweat-stained and love-spattered red velvet-posthumously limned with the shiny rivets and staples of a new era-could have looked pretty absurd if it were anyone other than Schoenberg at the workbench. Oh, how it works.

I have heard Ozawa's and Sinopoli's performances but it is the Chailly/London that I'm most intimately familiar with and therefore the one I will use to compare and contrast with Rattle's new recording. What of Rattle's new recording with the Berlin Philharmonic? In two words: slow and micromanaged. The Berliners play beautifully, voices are flatteringly recorded, and the sound stage expands as amply as one could want during climaxes, but I must report that Chailly's way with phrasing, dynamic gradations, hues, and tempi sweep me along in a way that Rattle's does not. Yes-Decca's recording for Chailly can sound claustrophobic at points, and Siegfried Jerusalem's voice can be uncomfortably up-front, but for me Chailly and his musicians "touch the infinite" in a way that eludes Sir Simon.

Both capture the delicate nocturnal machinations of nature in the orchestral introduction, but with Rattle's slow speeds the music's lilt is hardly perceptible, and the long-limbed phrases fall apart, at least for this listener. Chailly's brisker tempo helps to keep phrases intact and his attention to dynamic ebb and flow lends so much to my impression of forward momentum. The first couplet of songs, (S. Jerusalem and Susan Dunn for Chailly, Thomas Moser and Karita Mattila for Rattle), is the music of stillness-our lovers turn inward while contemplating Nature in all her glory. While Moser and Mattila are ostensibly expressive, listen to how Jerusalem and especially Dunn weave in and out of Schoenberg's kaleidoscopic textures-brushing the sound here, floating above the orchestra there-I find their performances compelling. Rattle's slow tempo and seemingly willful ritardandi often break the spell for me.

The next couplet of songs, tempestuous in nature and thickly orchestrated, fare much better in the Rattle recording. Rattle does wonders bringing out the mammoth, yet quicksilver textures of Schoenberg's accompaniment with clarity, and Moser's high B natural is much more tolerable than Jerusalem's. (And, unlike Chailly's Decca recording, those percussion-laden orchestral climaxes have plenty of room to breathe, thanks to EMI's recording team.)

The concluding songs, leading up the the Song of the Wood Dove, just get better and better in their expression of the joyous delirium of nascent love. Anyone who has experienced true joy knows that it comes as a vaguely unsettling surprise, as does our foreknowledge of joy's ephemeral nature. To paraphrase Pablo Neruda: "la fatiga sigue, y el dolor infinito" ("weariness follows, and the infinite ache"). While Mattila's voice for Rattle is undeniably beautiful, listen to how Dunn, in song seven, colors her desire with wonder and trepidation by turns, making her Tove so much easier to relate to. Chailly is right there with her and so much more successful than Rattle with the segment that closes the song: the arching string melodies that suddenly evaporate into percussive adumbrations of death-purple flushed lips pulled apart to reveal chattering teeth; and then those bitonally employed harps, stings, and mallet instruments--listen specifically to track 7/Decca @3:13-they sound like the tingling of skin.

Is there any more ecstatic moment in music than the climax of song nine, upon the words, "dying in a rapturous kiss?" While there's nothing wrong with Mattila's performance, listen to how Dunn moves from earth-shaking ardor to tremulous wonder and then perfectly dispatches that final high B natural with such abandon that I can only shake my head in gratitude. (Track 9/Decca.) In Waldemar's "afterglow" song, song ten, Rattle and Moser perform it tenderly, but in the present tense; while Chailly and Jerusalem foreshadow the music with a touching sense of sadness as well-they capture that "infinite ache."

In the Song of the Wood Dove, (I played piano in the chamber version of this work last year), Schoenberg jumps ahead stylistically. Rattle highlights the new, while Chailly perfumes Schoenberg's novel sounds with a bucolic fragrance that, to my ears, helps keep the song in step with the rest of the piece. Chailly's arrival of the Falcon is truly overwhelming in its sense of terrible majesty.

And so it goes. As you can see, I might as well be King Waldemar and Sir Simon Rattle might as well be my abandoned queen at this point. I am ending my thoughts here, as Part I holds the most valuable music for me, and nothing Rattle has done in Part II and III has cast a new light-in other words-changed the way I hear Part I in any kind of a revelatory or persuasive way.

John Smyth

Listeners new to this work by Arnold Schoenberg will be astonished by the lush romanticism of the orchestration, so foreign to the twelve tone system that he developed. This work is an early one that had such a long gestation period that it crossed into the period when Schoenberg no longer wrote the kind of music represented by the Gurrelieder. Such was his affection for this enormous work, part oratorio, part song cycle and operatic in spirit that he completed the work in the style that he had begun it.

Gurrelieder (Songs of Gurre) are based on poems by the Danish author Jens Peter Jacobsen and tells of the 12th century King Waldemar and his love for the beautiful Tove. Waldemar does not count on the jealousy of his wife who has Tove murdered. The king, out of grief, curses God and is condemned with his followers to rise from their graves each night and wander the Earth. The orchestra is enormous and was so time consuming that Schoenberg was occupied with the score for over ten years.

The beauty and power of this work is incredible and those who don't care for Schoenberg's modern creations should listen to the Gurrelieder. This recording received a Gramophone award as the best Choral album of 2002. Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic are superb in creating Schoenberg's sound world and the soloists could not be better. Tove is sung by Karita Mattila, Waldemar by Thomas Moser and Queen Waldtaube by Anne Sofie von Otter. This is unforgettable music that deserves to be better known.

This is a scandal! EMI's website announces that this is a 'live recording'. I thus bought the set, only to discover later from the news that this is not so. In fact, the voice of Karita Mattila has been dubbed on a pre-recorded track of the orchestral part of her songs while the other parts are recorded at live performances. Why can't the original soprano in the live performances be featured? That's a gross insult to the original artist of the performances as well as purchasers of this recording, and in particular those that have bought the set relying on EMI's claim as regards the nature of this recording. The performance itself isn't good at all. Mattila isn't on her top form even in the studio and she sounds detached, which is just natural given the absurd circumstances for the recording. The tenor can't cope with his high-lying music. The BPO and the chorus are both far too subdued for this red-blooded work, and the conducting of Rattle is unimaginative. A bitter disappointment!

Gurrelieder is an astonishly beautiful work. Despite a long interest in late romantic opera, I'd never listened to Gurrelieder until I bought this recording, so while I can't join in the passionate comparisons with other releases, I can say that Gurrelieder is one of the most powerfully emotional creations that has ever been written by any composer in world history!! I'd read about it before, and I think many commentators mislead listers as to what it is. They make the mistake of looking forward through Gurrelieder to the Schoenberg of the future, but, "teetering on the threshold of tonality" is not a good description of this composition. It's frankly much more Wagnerian than contemporary works by Strauss or Mahler. Indeed, passages (such as Tove's "Du sendest mir einen liebesblick") almost sound as if they'd flowed directly from Wagner's pen. I expected something ponderous and difficult, but despite it's huge orchestration, it's more often tender and delicate. But while Wagner's tragedies are seen through a phliosophical lens, which leads us to think about the larger meaning of love, pain, and death, Gurrelieder's story simply dwells first on the wonder of infatuated love, and then on the awful pain, rage, and emptiness that comes from loss and death. It's terribly effective. As to this recording, it's true that despite generally clear, excellent sound, it does sound a little more distant than other state-of-the-art recordings, as if it was being performed through a gauze curtain, and you don't feel, in the bombastic parts, as if you're listening to an orchestra of 145 players! But maybe that is really hard to capture. I like the principal soloists. I'm a fan of Thomas Moser, even if his voice has a kind of gravelly sound to it--honestly, in this music, it works well. Karita Mattila's Tove, whether or not it was spliced in (and generally, I am a purist), is gorgeous. Her voice is smooth, youthful, and endlessly feminine. I can't imagine a more beautiful Tove. But I'm eager to hear some other versions, so that I can really compare. I'd also recommend taking a look at the full score of Gurrelieder. It's like looking at the stars of the sky on a clear night. Not being a fan of atonal music, I only wish that Schoenberg had gone on to write a dozen romantic operas. Then, I think, he really would have been the greatest composer of the 20th century.

Odd, how with all the players in place in writing for what should be a stunning recording of Schonberg's radiantly beautiful and endlessly interesting GURRELIEDER - The Berlin Philharmonic, Simon Rattle conducting, Karita Mattila as Tove, Thomas Moser as Waldemar, Anne Sofie von Otter as the Wood Dove, Phillip Langridge as the Fool, and Thomas Quasthoff doubling as the baritone and as the speaker - this recording made during live performances during the Berlin Festival Week in 2001 remains grounded.

Having only a recording of the 1960's performance conducted by Raphael Kubelik to compare (now strangely unavailable) and a recent live performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the enlightened conducting of Esa-Pekka Salonen and the otherworldly acoustics of Disney Hall, perhaps it is unfair to be harsh on this recording. But it is not just the recorded flat acoustics technically that mar Schoenberg's masterwork here: Rattle just cannot find the passion and drama of this huge passionate, dramatic work for large orchestra, multiple choruses and soloists.

Each of the fine soloists handles the difficult roles well. Even Thomas Moser for the most part is able to approximate the ringing heldentenor required for Waldemar. And while Quasthoff does not always follow Schoenberg's pitch approximations and tremolos indicated in the score, he does give the speaker life.

The main problem here is the lack of clarity in the orchestra: where the strings should breathe the sighing lines of the First Part, they merely play the correct notes. And cramped by a muddy sound of the full orchestra and full chorus in the closing homage to the rising sun, Rattle does not keep the tension steady so that the pummeling sound does not bloom.

But perhaps this gargantuan work will not record. One wonders if the illuminating magic that made Disney Hall levitate under Salonen's baton would translate onto disc. It would be so worth the attempt! Grady Harp, February 2005

I find the playing on this recording some of the most beautiful I have ever heard. The singers are all in very fine shape. I find hard to believe the criticism it has taken on this page. This is a great performance of the work and certainly should be looked at by everyone who is getting into to Schoenberg or especially people that haven't listened Schoenberg before.

I have recently downloaded Schoenberg's Gurrelieder performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker under the baton of Simon Rattle.

Twenty years ago, I had great impressions of Rattle as a young conductor; I had bought a recording (EMI) of Mahler's 10th Symphony (with the completion) which Rattle had conducted. That recording was haunting and vivid--one of the best recordings in my collection. This recording of Gurrelieder joins this most special group. The recording, which is typical of EMI's engineering, is awesome. But Rattle's handling of this complex work is even more striking. Rattle treats this work as a vivid 'aural' picture. It is a picture story of love, a tragedy, anger, a journey through darkness, and a triumph of light. It is unfortunate that Chailly's rendition of Gurrelieder is not in print. Until Rattle came to the Berlin scene, Chailly's performance garnered much praise from listeners. Until Chailly's recording is back in print, I highly recommend the Rattle recording. It is well worth the sacrifice in your computer's hard disk to add this fine recording to your music folder.

Yes, the orchestral playing is both sumptuous and refined (what else would one expect from the Berlin Philharmonic?), and the singing is fine, but where is the the drama? Although I have not heard the Chailly recording, I understand where that reviewer on this site is coming from because I happen to have a long deleted recording by Rafael Kubelik on DG (taken from a mid 60's concert) whose urgency and intensity truly keeps you on the edge of your seat. Please DG, do reissue that wonderful performance on your originals series.

As a Simon Rattle fan, I thought this would be a great recording. My expectations weren't met in several departments. The sonics seem a bit remote and uninvolving. The tenor, Thomas Moser, is strong in a beefy, insensitive way. He is no Ben Heppner--see the live Levine performance from Munich. Mattila and von Otter are better, though neither strieks me as superb in these roles.

This preformance was good enough to displace my older one, under Sinopoli, but the live Levine performance on Oehme is quite revelatory. I happily discarded the Rattle for it.

I just received this cd as a gift, and it is a gem. Yes, shades of Strauss, Wagner and Mahler, all created on a incredibly, monumental scale. The composition is beautiful, sensual and panoramic. I've come to Schoenberg some later in my life via Glenn Gould who recorded some of his pieces and became somewhat of an authority on Schoenberg. What can I say, "Better late than never". Buy it.