Berg, Stravinsky: Violin Concertos / Perlman, Ozawa

Alban Berg (Composer), Maurice Ravel (Composer), Igor Stravinsky (Composer), Seiji Ozawa (Conductor), Zubin Mehta (Conductor), Boston Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), New York Philharmonic (Orchestra), Itzhak Perlman (Performer)

Product Details

• Performer: Itzhak Perlman
• Orchestra: Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic
• Conductor: Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta
• Composer: Alban Berg, Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky
• Audio CD (August 13, 1996)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B000001GQX
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #147,243 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Berg's Violin Concerto is atonal--yes, it's the "A" word, but you shouldn't let that keep you from getting to know this modern masterpiece; it's actually very listener-friendly. The music tells a story. The first movement is a character sketch of the young, flirtatious Manon Gropius, daughter of Alma Mahler and architect Walter Gropius. She died tragically of meningitis, and the second movement depicts the horrifying onset of her illness, her death, and her transfiguring apotheosis. Dedicated "to the memory of an angel," it's one of the most heartfelt and moving tributes imaginable. Stravinsky's much more abstract Violin Concerto is about being a violin concerto. Both works, modern classics, are exceptionally well played and recorded by Itzhak Perlman and Seiji Ozawa. Regarding Berg, this was a landmark recording of Perlman's both in his career as a performer and in the history of the work itself. For Perlman, generally perceived as a heart-on-sleeve traditionalist of the "old school," this venture into musical modernism confounded his detractors while at the same time introducing many new listeners to a work that, though difficult, has since come to be regarded as one of the touchstones of the Romantic concerto repertoire. Stravinsky's concerto is less controversial though no less well-played. In sum, these performances are landmarks in the Perlman discography. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love the Berg Concerto; Stravinsky Concerto is more Difficult, January 28, 2009

By	JAG 1 "Joe Anthony" (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews

In reviewing these two ultra-modern violin concertos, I'll start with the later. Stravinsky's Violin Concerto comes from his "Neo-Classical" phase. I must admit that aside from "The Rite of Spring" and "Ebony Concerto", there is not much in Stravinsky that moves me. Stravinsky, to me, is very difficult and cerebral. I suppose his "Neo-Classicism" was an attempt to get back to the style of Haydn and Mozart (which involved stripping away all forms of Romantic and late-Romantic sentiment). To me, this music (including this Violin Concerto), sounds somewhat tart and soul-less (albeit Igor seems to have been a rather tart and snooty person). Haydn and Mozart were Classical composers in the true sense, but their music also had a good dose of inner warmth and humor. I find much of Stravinsky quite humorless and cold. I personally think that Prokofiev did a better (or at least more entertaining) job of reaching a "Neo-Classical" spirit in his "Classical" symphony. I suppose, however, that the music (including this Violin Concerto) is well-crafted. When you hear Stravinsky, you know that you are in the presence of greatness, but he is more of a "musician's musician". So if you are a musician and are into deep well-crafted music for the sake of admiring such craftsmanship, you might actually enjoy Stravinsky's Violin Concerto more than I do. However, to make another comparison: Brahms was also a master craftsman who can also seem quite cold. When ones gets, however, more aquainted with Brahms, one finds that underneath the coldness, thickness and gruff exterior, that Brahms has a heart and a core of warmth. I've had a hard time finding much warmth in this Violin Concerto by Stravinsky.

Now the concerto by Alban Berg is another matter. Berg comes from the infamous "Second School of Vienna" headed by the uncompromising Arnold Schoenberg. This is ultra-modern music of the so-called "serial" or "Twelve Tone " variety. The idea is to conquer or "liberate" music from melody by using all twelve notes in each measure so as to eliminate a "tonic center". In other words, Berg doesn't want to create "tunes" per se-nothing you can whistle to yourself afterwards as with Beethoven's Fifth Symphony or Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker". You would think that such a system would inspire music that nobody would want to hear (and albeit, there are few people on the street that identify Berg or Schoenberg as their favorite composers). However, in the case of this Violin Concerto by Berg, there is a certain warmth and raw emotion that comes through the fierce methodology. The concerto was written as a remembrance for a departed child, and parts of it are quite lovely, sad, tense, and full of anguish. Berg even manages to be "sweeping" in the Romantic sense-almost like Wagner; except that Wagner is melodic and Berg is more-so cloaked in mystery. I have always liked Berg's Violin Concerto, both as a Violin Concerto and as a "serial" or "Twelve-Tone" work. Of all twelve-tone works, in fact, I would say that along with Schoenberg's chilling "Survivor from Warsaw", it the most accesable and is the one I would recommend to the casual listener of classical music.

As for the performance, you can't get get much better than Itzhak Perlman. Now that Isaac Stern and Yehudi Menuhin are gone, he's probably the greatest violinist alive today. He presents both these concertos masterfully with a full, crisp tone. Maestro Seiji Ozawa and the BSO provide compoetant but not overbearing support.

9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Why all the fuss? This is mediocre., February 24, 2001

By	John Grabowski (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I'm normally a big fan of the DG Originals series, but this is one they could have left in the vaults. The performance of the Berg is adequate. But I don't get the fuss when this has now become a competitive field. (It was not when this recording was originally released in 1980.) Throughout the work Perlman is distant and uninvolved, with a thin wirey tone that borders on ugly at times (and yes, I know this is a "dissonant" and tragic work, but the tone is simply colorless, which is different) and Ozawa conducts like he's not really listening to his fiddle player, not really relating some intricate accompaniments to what Perlman's violin line is. Time and again he skates over climaxes, holds back, fails to get all the depth from his accompanist role. The sound is not that great for a DG Originals reissue--it's rather dry. The Stravinsky fares better (though the soundstage is close-up and bizarre), but it is hardly reason to recommend the recording itself. Zukerman/Boulez, Szigeti/Mitropoulos, Krasner/Webern (the very first recording and only the second performance of the work), and above all Mutter/Levine easily beat this recording. The Mutter in particular is a hair-raising account where every shading of the score is examined and given breath and color, where the work's "Modern" and "Romantic" worlds are for once melded appropriately. (The Krasner is another example of that, largely thanks to Webern's insightful accompaniment, but with that 1936 performance there's the issue of extremely limited sound.) In short, Stravinsky, four stars...Berg one.

10 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bland & Un-Committed Performances, May 29, 2004

By	Jeffrey Lipscomb (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

These are two of my favorite pieces, but the performances here are utterly bland and un-committed. Perlman merely saws through both with a mechanical, un-inflected proficiency - he often sounds like he's more in a hurry to get home. Ozawa is worse: he virtually sleepwalks his way through both scores, offering very little in the way of true collaboration. The orchestral commentary in both works just sort of wanders by, with little accentuation or inflection. In Perlman's equally bland account of the Stravinsky with Barenboim, the latter at least provided a more detailed and better executed framework than this catatonic effort by Ozawa.

To my ears, no modern version of either work has matched the stunning achievement of Arthur Grumiaux, who recorded both concertos in excellent 1967 stereo sound for Philips (they were coupled on the same LP). In the Berg, Grumiaux was ably accompanied by Igor Markevitch, whereas the Stravinsky was led by Ernest Bour, a champion of modern music who was trained by Scherchen and who succeeded Hans Rosbaud at the SW German Radio. The orchestra in both cases was the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

Grumiaux was one of the last century's greatest violinists, and his combination of rhythmic zest and soaring lyricism in both works was extraordinary: he was simply a finer musician than the likes of Perlman, Stern, or Zukerman. The Grumiaux Stravinsky Concerto is available in a fine Stravinsky collection on a Philips "two-fer." Unfortunately, the Berg remains in limbo - it is urgently in need of a CD transfer.

There are two old 1930's recordings that remain my interpretive benchmarks in each concerto: Louis Krasner with Anton Webern in the Berg, and Samuel Dushkin with the composer conducting in the Stravinsky. I feel that people who love these pieces should make an effort to find them and hear what is possible in this music.

Despite crackly, deficient mono sonics, the Berg Concerto from May 1, 1936 on Testament Continuum SBT 1004 is an absolute marvel. Krasner premiered the work a year before in Barcelona with Scherchen conducting. Berg's friend and compatriot Anton Webern was supposed to conduct, but he got cold feet at the last moment about performing his late comrade's final testament. Just listen to the performance on this Testament CD - which Webern DID conduct, with the BBC Symphony - and you will hear what is missing with Perlman and Ozawa. It is deeply inflected and romantically impassioned: the phrasing is simply gorgeous.

The 1935 Paris recording with Dushkin in the Stravinsky can now be heard in a splendid transfer on an Andante CD set. Stravinsky was closer to his roots than would later be the case: he and Dushkin fashion an earthy performance that hails back to ancient Russia itself. Dushkin is an obedient fiddler - he plays his part EXACTLY the way Stravinsky wanted it to be heard. His playing may take some getting used to: the composer insisted on an abandoned, rhapsodic, somewhat swoopy style that makes most contemporary accounts sound bland by comparison. A Columbia Records executive once told me that Stravinsky was so incensed at Isaac Stern being chosen for the stereo re-make that he threatened to break his recording contract. But he later relented, and the result was dreary in comparison with the earlier version.

To conclude: try to hear Grumiaux for the best modern accounts of these magnetic scores. The earlier historic versions are wonderful reminders of truly "living" music: they are a sharp contrast to the sterile, dry-as-toast renderings we usually get these days.