Customer Reviews

Vienna: Music by Schoenberg, Webern and Berg

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

 

 

Here are some full-bodied orchestral works from the Big Three composers of twelve-tone music (though the pieces may not all be strictly twelve-tone). You can load this CD into your multi-disc player along with other early Twentieth Century pieces that are not twelve-tone and they will fit right in. The secret is Dorati's approach to this music: He treats them just as if they were regular pieces of music, not something to examine as an historical curiosity, not something to work hard at exposing all the details (at the expense of each piece's wholeness), and certainly not something to worship. They're just naturally and sympathetically played, and all those nice details show up anyway.

The recordings harken from that era when Mercury was using the 35 MM film system of recording, and the good news about that is that the "tape hiss" you would normally associate with a recording from this era is tremendously low. All you get is the music.

The final offering, the suite from the opera "Lulu", has an added soprano, Helga Pilarczyk. She is a committed participant, although her highs are not too great. But what the heck, she is hardly given anything to sing, so don't let that hold you back. Altogether, this is a startlingly good CD, 75 minutes of terrific music played the way you most want to hear it.

Here is nice collection of orchestral works by the second Viennese school, the big three of atonality:Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg. Antal Dorati, conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, brings the same fire and verve to these touchstones of musical Modernism that was so amply displayed in his legendary recording of Stravinsky's "Le Sacre Du Printemps" with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (one of my all-time favorite classical recordings). The Schoenberg pieces are full of rich texture and intriguing rhythmic juxtapositions, definitly a good introduction to the work of this challenging composer. The concise angular miniatures of Webern's "Five Pieces" for orchestra last only a little longer than four minutes, and are stunningly concise and inventive, with nary a note wasted. These are priceless sonic jewels that rank up there with the composer's "Six Bagatelles" for string quartet in economy and invention, with an equally precise placement of silences that thunder with the same authority as the notes(if only a little softer!). Berg is a composer I'm less familiar with, but these works seem to support his reputation as the most "traditional" of the three. His pieces have a lushness and density of sound not found in most of Schoenberg, and certainly not in Webern. They strike me as less inventive than the works of the other two, like Romantic music without the dramatic tonality. Consequently, Berg's works don't demand my attention like those of Schoenberg and Webern; but a more traditional classical music listener might get more out of them than I do. All in all, a nice, well-conducted collection with surprisingly good sound (only a little tape hiss, here and there), considering that these are recordings from the early 60's.

This is a very good collection of 2nd Vienna School. All works are amazing. These works are not dangerous modernly, but very effective, somewhere dramatic, too. And the performances of Antal Dorati is awesome. His London Symphony Orchestra played with emotion, powerfrul, effective. The sound quality is excellent, too.

Schoenberg's Five Pieces, Op. 16 is his one of the first atonal works. Written for large orchestra, and it is very insane, impressive, somewhere very contemplative and calm (in 2nd and 3rd pieces). But, I think the star of this CD is Alban Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra:

Berg's Three Pieces, Op. 6 is may be the most complex work of 2nd Vienna School, but it is most impressive, too. Especially, the last movement, which a funeral music written with influencing of World War I, is very effective, heavy but drammatic, touching. In last minutes there are very powerful climaxes which there is a solo for hammer! The last exploding chord of the work, which comes after a very deep deathful silence, is terrible. I think, this is may be a prophety of Berg, which means these wars will not finish, may be in next years there are more terrible wars, including atomic bomb!!

Another important work is Berg's Lulu-Suite. This suite be constitued from his second opera, as you know. It is includes, a very amazing music, Interlude-Film Music. In this movement, the curtain of 2nd Act's 1st scene falls and then a silent-non-coloured film starts with this music. It has a very interesting, but intelligent form, based on film's story: the music starts and go forward, then it arrves a centre of music, and then it goes backwards! and finishes as like starts...

It is an essential recording and at this price, a must have for any classical music lovers. Highly reccomended.

One of the most famous records of the Lp era contained these gorgeous performances of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, performances that establish those composers' important connections with Mahler and Debussy. Now resplendently remastered for cd, they still shine. If you're at all shy when it comes to the music of Schoenberg and the rest of the "Second Viennese School," take the plunge with this disk! Dorati positively milks these scores for drama without sacrificing any of their inherent poetry and, yes, real charm. Sound quality remains spectacular after 40 years. Note that the cd contains all the music on the original Lp, and generously adds to it a great performance of Berg's "Lulu Suite" taken from another famous Living Presence Lp that also contained excerpts from Berg's earlier opera, "Wozzeck." (P.S. You can find the "Wozzeck" excerpts included on Dorati's awesome Mercury cd of Bartok's opera "Duke Bluebeard's Castle." Another "must have" classic!)

Since the LP days, this has been my favorite recording of Berg's 3 Orchestral pieces. Dorati is one of the greatest underrated conductors ever. The recording is fantastic and the CD edition, great (altough the LPs still sound better).

some analog remasters sound pretty good. This one is a bit flattened in the climaxes to the detriment of the pieces. Very good performances, but I would recommend later performances of this very interesting music. Lulu suite is pretty good again except for the climaxes.

If the yr was 1961 up to the time of Boulez's recordings, i'd give Dorati and The London 5 Stars. But in 2008 I only can allow 3 stars. The music gets a stunning 5 Stars.
In its day this was a fine first recording. Think about 1961, most people were hardly aware of the second viennese greats.
We thank Dorati and the london for bringing a good recording in 1961, 1962.
but times move on and along comes Boulez.
This one is not recommended. Buy any of Boulez recordings.