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

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Schoenberg's melodic, tonal Wagnerian masterpiece Gurrelieder calls for one of the largest orchestras ever assembled on one concert platform, including 25 woodwind, 25 brass, 11 percussion, three four-part male voice choirs, and a mixed eight-part choir. Simon Rattle fondly remembers it as the "biggest score in Liverpool's Music Library." In the interview with him that's included in the liner notes, he adds: "although 400 people are involved, Gurrelieder is in fact the world's largest string quartet."

Through music of sumptuous beauty, it tells the story of a king, Waldemar, whose beautiful young mistress Tove is murdered by his wife. Waldemar joins a terrifying nighttime ride of skeletons and corpses while railing against God. Although the themes and sound-world are Wagnerian, Rattle treats the score like Strauss--using a light, even ironically Mozartean touch. The effect is overwhelmingly powerful, and the work's climaxes (the skeletons' "Wild hunt" and the massive "Hymn to the sun at the end") are all the more spine-tingling for the careful restraint and generally quick tempi that have gone before.

The singers couldn't be bettered. Tenor Thomas Moser has a rich baritone range perfect for the demanding role of Waldemar, the king whose lover is foully murdered. Karita Mattila is both creamy and intense as the lover in question. Philip Langridge and Anne Sofie von Otter are also in top form. Stunning. --Warwick Thompson

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder; Sir Simon Rattle; Berlin Philharmonic & soloists, Music, Karita Mattila, Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Moser, Philip Langridge, Thomas Quasthoff, Sir Simon Rattle, Arnold Schoenberg, Berlin Philharmonic, Choral, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Classical Vocals, Oratorio
Schoenberg: Gurrelieder; Sir Simon Rattle; Berlin Philharmonic & soloists
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • excellent playing, a good interpretation... but Gurrelieder is too long, too loud, too complicated
  • So much to accomplish so little...
  • I expected much better
  • Until a better recording of Gurrelieder comes along...
  • Romantic Schoenberg
 Schoenberg: Gurrelieder; Sir Simon Rattle; Berlin Philharmonic & soloists
Karita Mattila , Thomas Quasthoff , Sir Simon Rattle , Arnold Schoenberg , and Berlin Philharmonic
Manufacturer: EMI Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

All Works by SchoenbergAll Works by Schoenberg | Schoenberg, Arnold | ( S ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
Berlin Philharmonic OrchestraBerlin Philharmonic Orchestra | ( B ) | Featured Performers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
OratoriosOratorios | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
OratoriosOratorios | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
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  3. Szymanowski: Harnasie; Orchestral Songs
  4. Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Pelleas und Melisande / Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
  5. Saint-Saëns: The Complete Works for Piano & Orchestra

ASIN: B0000633FR
Release Date: 2002-06-04

Tracks:

  1. Part One: Orchestervorspiel - Berliner Philharmoniker
  2. Part One: Nun Dampft Die Damm'rung - Thomas Moser
  3. Part One: O, Wenn Des Mondes Strahlen - Karita Mattila
  4. Part One: Ross! Mein Ross! - Thomas Moser
  5. Part One: Sterne Jubeln - Karita Mattila
  6. Part One: So Tanzen Die Engel Vor Gottes Thron Nicht - Thomas Moser
  7. Part One: Nun Sag Ich Dir Zum Ersten Mal - Karita Mattila
  8. Part One: Es Ist Mitternachtszeit - Thomas Moser
  9. Part One: Du Sendest Mir Einen Liebesblick - Karita Mattila
  10. Part One: Du Wunderliche Tove! - Thomas Moser
  11. Part One: Orchesterwischenspiel - Berliner Philharmoniker
  12. Part One: Tauben Von Gurre! - Anne Sofie Von Otter

Tracks:

  1. Part Two: Herrgott, Weisst Du, Was Du Tatest - Thomas Moser
  2. Part Three: Erwacht, Konig Waldemars Mannen Wert! - Thomas Moser
  3. Part Three: Deckel Des Sarges Klappert - Thomas Quasthoff
  4. Part Three: Gegrusst, O Konig - Ernst Senff Chor Berlin
  5. Part Three: Mit Toves Stimme Flustert Der Wald - Thomas Moser
  6. Part Three: 'Ein Seltsamer Vogel Ist So'n Aal...' - Philip Langridge
  7. Part Three: Du Strenger Richter Droben - Thomas Moser
  8. Part Three: Der Hahn Erhebt Den Kopf Zur Kraht - Ernst Senff Chor Berlin
  9. Des Sommerwindes Wilde Jagd (Melodram): Orchestervorspiel - Berliner Philharmoniker
  10. Des Sommerwindes Wilde Jagd (Melodram): Herr Gansefuss, Frau Gansekraut - Thomas Quasthoff
  11. Des Sommerwindes Wilde Jagd (Melodram): Seht Die Sonne! - Rundfunkchor Berlin

Amazon.com

Schoenberg's melodic, tonal Wagnerian masterpiece Gurrelieder calls for one of the largest orchestras ever assembled on one concert platform, including 25 woodwind, 25 brass, 11 percussion, three four-part male voice choirs, and a mixed eight-part choir. Simon Rattle fondly remembers it as the "biggest score in Liverpool's Music Library." In the interview with him that's included in the liner notes, he adds: "although 400 people are involved, Gurrelieder is in fact the world's largest string quartet."

Through music of sumptuous beauty, it tells the story of a king, Waldemar, whose beautiful young mistress Tove is murdered by his wife. Waldemar joins a terrifying nighttime ride of skeletons and corpses while railing against God. Although the themes and sound-world are Wagnerian, Rattle treats the score like Strauss--using a light, even ironically Mozartean touch. The effect is overwhelmingly powerful, and the work's climaxes (the skeletons' "Wild hunt" and the massive "Hymn to the sun at the end") are all the more spine-tingling for the careful restraint and generally quick tempi that have gone before.

The singers couldn't be bettered. Tenor Thomas Moser has a rich baritone range perfect for the demanding role of Waldemar, the king whose lover is foully murdered. Karita Mattila is both creamy and intense as the lover in question. Philip Langridge and Anne Sofie von Otter are also in top form. Stunning. --Warwick Thompson

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars excellent playing, a good interpretation... but Gurrelieder is too long, too loud, too complicated.......2007-02-06

One of the really useful, subtle distinctions of the English language, to my mind, is that between the words 'complex' and 'complicated.' Complexity is generally something admirable, where complication is a problematic, negative attribute: complexity denotes consonance and the profound where complication denotes dissonance, confusion, overloading, imbalance, difficulty. Art acheives complexity where politics gets complicated, for example.

My difficulty with this album, then, is that Gurrelieder is complicated. For as impressive as Schoenberg's craftsmanship is, for as spectacular as his compositional acheivement here, it's ultimately, to borrow a phrase I once heard applied to Mahler's work, just "too long, too loud, to complicated, and just generally TOO." In fact, if that's right with regard to Mahler, Gurrelieder is even more so---Schoenberg set out to out-Postromatic the Postromantics here, and he succeeded... well, not quite admirably, but he certainly succeeded.

So Abbado and company make the most out of a good but decidedly NOT great work of music here. The playing of the Berliners is delightful as usual, the soloists are in excellent form, and Abbado goes a long way towards bringing a chamber music-like immediacy and intimacy to this huge score (something I've always though Leonard Slatkin can do as well as anyone in the world, incidentally; Abbado doesn't manage to synthesize this score as well as Slatkin in his St. Louis Symphony recording of the Mahler 2nd Symphony, but then I don't think Gurrelieder is the composition that the Mahler 2nd is). But in the end, this piece is just far, far too much.

3 out of 5 stars So much to accomplish so little..........2005-11-04

The overall quality of this recording falls somewhere in the middle to me. I think Sinopoli's is currently still the best, but that's not what this review is about.

Gurrelieder, the composition, is what leaves me cold. I admit that I was dazzled by the first listening (especially by the prelude and the choral pieces in part 2), but once you can cut through the orchestration--down to the heart of it--it loses most of its appeal.

There are so many weak-spots in this work that simply would not be if Schoenberg devoted more attention to the dramatico-musical structure of this work and less to the excessive orchestration. It is so densely overscored that even the best conductors can't keep all of the melodic lines distinct. I defy anyone to pick out the lyrics for 'Seht die Sonne' from the recording without using the libretto!

To compare this work to a Meistersinger, a Tristan, or a Mahler 8 is folly. Those works are products of a life's work--bursting with originality and substance. Gurrelieder is more of a youthful indiscretion.

3 out of 5 stars I expected much better.......2005-09-05

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.

4 out of 5 stars Until a better recording of Gurrelieder comes along..........2005-02-09

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

5 out of 5 stars Romantic Schoenberg.......2004-01-08

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.

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