Wozzeck

Berg (Artist), Berry (Artist), Paris National Opera (Artist), Boulez (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 1, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000024XN
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #479,251 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Act I, '5 Character Pieces': No. 1, 'Suite'

2. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Act I, '5 Character Pieces': No. 2, 'Rhapsody'

3. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Act I, '5 Character Pieces': No. 3, 'Military March and Lullaby'

4. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Act I, '5 Character Pieces': No. 4, 'Passacaglia'

5. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Act I, '5 Character Pieces': No. 5, 'Andante affettuoso' (quasi Rondo)

Disc: 2

1. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Act II, 'Symphony in 5 Movements': No. 1, 'Sonata Movement'

2. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Act II, 'Symphony in 5 Movements': No. 2, 'Fantasy and Fugue'

3. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Act II, 'Symphony in 5 Movements': No. 3, 'Largo'

4. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Act II, 'Symphony in 5 Movements': No. 4, 'Scherzo'

5. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Act II, 'Symphony in 5 Movements': No. 5, 'Rondo con introduzione'

6. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Act III, '6 Inventions': No. 1, 'Invention on a theme'

7. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Act III, '6 Inventions': No. 2, 'Invention on one note'

8. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Act III, '6 Inventions': No. 3, 'Invention on a rhythm'

9. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Act III, '6 Inventions': No. 4, 'Invention on a chord of six notes'

10. Wozzeck, opera, Op. 7: Orchestral Interlude, 'Invention on a key': No. 5, 'Invention on quaver figure'

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The second studio recording of Wozzeck - and still the best., February 26, 2000

By 

Robert Moore (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wozzeck (Audio CD)

This is the Wozzeck which must NOT be missed. All the depth and power of Berg's score is laid bare for all to hear in this unparalleled performance from 1966. As if Boulez' strict attention to the score's meaty details and the crystalline recorded sound ain't enough, the extremely powerful performances by Walter Berry and Isabel Strauss definitely bring home the bacon for anybody wishing to hear Wozzeck "as it was meant to be". Act III is a nightmare from which one never wants to awaken. I'm telling ya, if you don't buy this thing, you're gonna hate yourself later.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A worthy sucessor to Boulez's Lulu, November 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Wozzeck (Audio CD)

Boulez is is best known for his pioneering Paris Opera production and recording of the completed three act Lulu. This previous recording of Berg's other opera is equally fine, following the music very objectively and carefully. Walter Berry, more familiar from Romantic opera is especially fine: His sprechgesang is expressive and dramatically very effective. To be recommended

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hey, Sony, will you reissue this Wozzeck IMMEDIATELY!, October 18, 2007

By 

Sam - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wozzeck (Audio CD)

This Wozzeck has often been criticized for its 'average' singers (with the exception of Walter Berry) and its dry, clinical musical direction - it even led French critics to nickname the work 'Veau sec' (dry veal) as a pun! How wrong! Pierre Boulez only pays attention to every nuance in the score to convey all the work's subtlety, and especially its dramatic progression, which he makes unavoidable from first to last. The evolution is all the more telling as Walter Berry makes Wozzeck's mental evolution perfectly clear, from his rustic simplicity in his absent-minded 'Ja, Herr Hauptmann' in the first scene, through his growing mental confusion and hallucinations to his blood-thirsty murder of Marie - and then his death in the same naive simplicity as at the beginning of the opera, as if unaware that he is dying.

The orchestra's playing is highly atmospheric, and when Wozzeck goes to the pub the dance music sounds so real (with an accordion!) that you could almost smell beer and see drunkards burping away - as vividly as in a Breughel painting. The other singers may not be great, but then this is a crudely expressionist conception of Wozzeck, so they very aptly match their roles - Carl Doench (the Doctor) unscrupulously unhuman in his experiments, Isabel Strauss (Marie) in turns seductive, maternal and whorish.

So this is certainly no civilized Wozzeck, that may not suit those who are drawn to Boehm's, Dohnanyi's or Abbado's more polished recordings. Yet this recording casts a much stronger spell than any other that I have heard, and cannot but make you face all that Berg wanted to express in this work.

Alas, this recording has been unavailable for years - I just managed to get hold of the LP edition (with an identical cover)! Sony should really consider reissuing it on a cheaper series, as well as the Mitropoulos version, whose crumbly ensembles have always prevented me from enjoying it, but whose admirers are numerous.