Schoenberg: Gurrelieder

Track Listings

1. I. Teil - Orchestervorspiel

2. I. Teil - Nun DÄMpft Die DÄMmrung Jeden Ton

3. I. Teil - O, Wenn Des Mondes Strahlen Milde Gleiten

4. I. Teil - Roß! Mein Roß! Was Schleichst Du So TrÄG!

5. I. Teil - Sterne Jubeln, Das Meer, Es Leuchtet

6. I. Teil - So Tanzen Die Engel Vor Gottes Thron Nicht

7. I. Teil - Nun Sag Ich Dir Zum Ersten Mal

8. I. Teil - Es Ist Mitternachtszeit

9. I. Teil - Du Sendest Mir Einen Liebesblick

10. I. Teil - Du Wunderliche Tove!

11. I. Teil - Orchesterzwischenspiel

12. I. Teil - Tauben Von Gurre!

13. Ii. Teil - Herrgott, WeißT Du, Was Du Tatest

14. Iii. Teil - Erwacht, KÖNig Waldemars Mannen Wert!

15. Iii. Teil - Deckel Des Sarges Klappert Und Klappt

16. Iii. Teil - GegrÜßT, O KÖNig, An Gurresees Strand!

17. Iii. Teil - Mit Toves Stimme FlÜStert Der Wald

18. Iii. Teil - Ein Seltsamer Vogel Ist So'n Aal

19. Iii. Teil - Du Strenger Richter Droben

20. Iii. Teil - Der Hahn Erhebt Den Kopf Zur Kraht

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Tracks:

Erwartung, Op. 17: Scene I: 'Hier hinein?...Man sieht den Weg nicht...'
Erwartung, Op. 17: Scene II: 'Ist das noch der Weg?'
Erwartung, Op. 17: Scene III: 'Da kommt ein Licht!...'
Erwartung, Op. 17: Scene IV: 'Er ist auch nicht da...'
Erwartung, Op. 17: Scene IV: 'Das Mondlicht...nein dort...'
Erwartung, Op. 17: Scene IV: 'Nein, das ist doch nicht moglich...'
Erwartung, Op. 17: Scene IV: 'Du siehst wieder dort hin!...'
Erwartung, Op. 17: Scene IV: 'Der Morgen trennt uns...'
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part I: 1. Mondestrunken
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part I: 2. Colombine
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part I: 3. Der Dandy
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part I: 4. Eine blasse Wascherin
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part I: 5. Valse de Chopin
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part I: 6. Madonna
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part I: 7. Der kranke Mond
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part II: 8. Nacht (Passacaglia)
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part II: 9. Gebet an Pierrot
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part II: 10. Raub
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part II: 11. Rote Messe
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part II: 12. Galgenlied
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part II: 13. Enthauptung
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part II: 14. Die Kreuze
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part III: 15. Heimweh
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part III: 16. Gemeinheit
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part III: 17. Parodie
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part III: 18. Der Mondfleck
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part III: 19. Serenade
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part III: 20. Heimfahrt (Barcarole)
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: Part III: 21. O alter Duft
Gurre-Lieder: Lied der Waldtaube

Customer Reviews:

Sprechstimme???.......2006-03-25

I have a Boulez recording of the Pierrot Lunaire that I recorded on tape from a friend's Lp in 1979. I don't know anything about this lp, except that it is a Boulez's direction, but I think that it is an earlier version of this 1977 recording. The "sprechstimme" is realized better than the De Gaetani recording, obviously better than this '77 Boulez recording (here the reciter sing, and the Pierrot sould absolutely not be sung) and much better than the 1997 recording with Christine Schafer, who sing and often seems, I don't know how to say, almost like a "strangled hen"!... If anybody knows if this recording (my earlier Boulez recording on tape) is available on cd please tell us!!!

response to weirdears.......2006-01-26

this isn't a review (i had to select some stars). i think the reciter's name in the early lp recording of pierrot that he listened to in elementary school is ethel semser (that sounds like lotte lenya, doesn't it?). I have this lp..it's on the westminster label, and it sounds terrific on my old silvertone mono player from the late 40's.

Great Erwartung, OK Pierrot..........2003-07-18

Contained on this Disc are two of Schoenberg's seminal expressionist works, Erwartung and Pierrot Lunaire. Erwartung, a "monodrama", is a terrifying emotional rollercoaster ride through a dark woods at night. Boulez and Janis Martin capture the essence of this piece perfectly, and the BBC orchestra, as usual, delivers a spine chilling accompaniment to this piece. Erwartung is the postershild of expressionist art (both in the music and the text). These works prove to the Philistines of 20th century music that atonality IS a legitamate art form and has the potential to express just about anything, even nothingness. Really, buy this album just for Erwartung, it is the best version I have heard on disc. Where we run into problems is Pierrot. The "Dandy from Bergamo" seems just a bit too lyrical at times. On some other recordings, I get the feeling that the sprechstimme is taken way out of proportion (as Schoenberg does indicate very exact pitches for the reciter, even notating sharps and flats). His original instructions, however, say that the recitation should "not call to mind singing", and Yvonne Minton's voice does, as much as one tries to ignore it. A correct reading Schoenberg's instructions can only be seen as extremely elusive and this, I suppose, is just another legitimate reading of the notation. I suppose we must just use our imaginations and realize that the ideal lies somewhere in between the extremes. So, in conclusion, if you are really a Schoenberg fan, get this CD for Erwartung and a different Pierrot. If you just want to try Schoenberg, then I think other albums might present a better "beginner's package".

I loved it.......2002-09-20

OK, maybe the Sprechstimme is a bit romanticised on this version, but it hasn't sounded this beautiful in many recordings. Deffinitley a good introduction to this work if you're a bit feint-hearted about atonality, and a very informative second version to own even if you're not. Boulez in this repertoire is unbeatable, combining his analytical ear with passion and a sense of line that is just unique. Somehow with him you hear each strand individually while hearing it as a whole.

A warning though about the Gurrelieder. Wonderful though the recording is, Jessye Norman - ample in all ways, line, voice, rubato, feeling - is a tad "cooler" (read: careful and less hystrionic)than Troyanos or Fassbaender on the other two main contenders in my book, Chailly and Ozawa. This is partly because this is an arrangement for smaller orchestra, not the HUGE forces of the original. I was not disapppointed, but some buyers wanting the full symphonic sweep might be. Worth it for Norman though. She brings a largesse to it that is not over the top, but conveys the post-romantic yearning so poigniantly. I have to withhold the 5th star because Norman doesn't quite let rip, and because this is not the only version of Pierrot one should own.

There are Many Better Versions.......2002-07-19

I have loved Pierrot lunaire since I was in late elementary school (yes I was a weird child!) but had not picked up a CD copy, content with my old pirated tape of a mono recording. (One of the first LP versions of the piece...I don't remember the performers but it was stunning.The reciter sounds like Lotte Lenya!) And I have always admired Boulez's take on Schoenberg, which is quite transparent, not muddy as so many others can be in this music. But I was extremely disappointed in this CD version.

The problem lies mostly in Yvonne Minton. She is a wonderful singer, but that's just the issue. Pierrot should absolutely NOT be sung. Nor really should it be spoken. Schoenberg's invention of sprechstimme is a unique thing and perhaps among his greatest inventions. It has influenced many composers who have no use for his other musical theories. A good interpretation of this piece makes it sound like a Berlin cabaret piece as seen through a twisted lens. Minton does not do this. She sings, complete with vibrato. As a result, the music looses both the nightmare quality that it should have, and also looses it's sense of humor.

The other pieces on the recording are quite good. The Ewartung is well sung and Boulez brings clarity to an otherwise muddy score. And Jessye Norman sings the Lied der Waldtaube beautifully. But the Gurrelieder piece is best in the context of the complete oratorio, and there are other equally good recordings of Ewartung (there's a wonderful one on a Phillips two-fer that also includes Verklarte Nacht, the Orchestral Variations, and the first Chamber Symphony.)

For the Pierrot, I would recommend the later Boulez recording with Schafer doing the reciter's part, or Jan De Gaetani and Arthur Weissberg's ensemble. This one just doesn't capture the work at all.

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder; Sir Simon Rattle; Berlin Philharmonic & soloists
Average customer rating:

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

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Saint-Saëns: The Complete Works for Piano & Orchestra

ASIN: B0000633FR
Release Date: 2002-06-04

Tracks:

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

Tracks:

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Schoenberg - Gurre-Leider ~ 4 Songs, Op. 22 / Napier, Minton, Nimsgern, J. Thomas, BBC SO, Boulez
Average customer rating:

a performance with some major problems

A GREAT GURRELIEDER; AN EXQUISITE FOUR SONGS...

Schoenberg - Gurre-Leider ~ 4 Songs, Op. 22 / Napier, Minton, Nimsgern, J. Thomas, BBC SO, Boulez
Arnold Schoenberg , BBC Symphony Orchestra , Pierre Boulez , Marita Napier , Siegmund Nimsgern , Jess Thomas , Yvonne Minton , BBC Singers , Gentlemen of the London Philharmonic Choir , and BBC Choral Society
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000002816
Release Date: 1993-07-13

Tracks:

Gurre-Lieder: Part I: Orchestral Prelude
Gurre-Lieder: Part I: 'Nun dampft die Dammrung jeden Ton'
Gurre-Lieder: Part I: 'O, wenn des Mondes Strahlen leise gleiten'
Gurre-Lieder: Part I: Ross! Mein Ross! Was schleichst du so trag!'
Gurre-Lieder: Part I: 'Sterne jubeln, das Meer, es leuchtet'
Gurre-Lieder: Part I: 'So tanzen die Engel vor Gottes Thron nicht'
Gurre-Lieder: Part I: 'Nun sag' ich dir zum ersten Mal'
Gurre-Lieder: Part I: 'Es ist Mitternachtszeit'
Gurre-Lieder: Part I: 'Du sendest mir einen Liebesblick'
Gurre-Lieder: Part I: 'Du wunderliche Tove!'
Gurre-Lieder: Part I: 'Tauben von Gurre! Sorge qualt mich'

Tracks:

Gurre-Lieder: Part Three: 'Herrgott, weisst du, was du tatest'
Gurre-Lieder: Part III: The Wild Hunt: 'Erwacht, Konig Waldemars Mannen wert!'
Gurre-Lieder: Part III: The Wild Hunt: 'Deckel des Sarges klappert und klappt'
Gurre-Lieder: Part III: The Wild Hunt: Waldemars Mannen: 'Gegrusst, o Konig, an Gurresees Strant!'
Gurre-Lieder: Part III: The Wild Hunt: 'Mit Toves Stimme flustert der Wald'
Gurre-Lieder: Part III: The Wild Hunt: 'Ein seltsamer Vogetr ist so'n Aal'
Gurre-Lieder: Part III: The Wild Hunt: 'Du strenger Richter droben'
Gurre-Lieder: Part III: The Wild Hunt: Waldemars Mannen: 'Der Hahn erhebt den Kopf zur Kraht'
Gurre-Lieder: Part III: The Wild Hunt Of The Summer Wind: Orchester-Vorspiel - Sprecher (Melodram): 'Herr Gansefuss, Frau Gansekraut' - Gemischter Chor: 'Seht die Sonne'
4 Orchestral Songs, Op.22: I. Seraphita
4 Orchestral Songs, Op.22: II. Alle, welche dich suchen
4 Orchestral Songs, Op.22: III. Mach mich zum Wachter deiner Weiten
4 Orchestral Songs, Op.22: IV. Vorgefuhl

Customer Reviews:

a performance with some major problems.......2006-06-19

As a general rule I'm a big fan of Boulez's recordings of modern works, but I have one major problem with this work. When a conductor has a work with a very large orchestra the conductor has to be particularly careful about making sure that the sounds stay distinct; otherwise the individual instruments are going to get lost in the large sound of the orchestra as a whole. The sound here sounds great at the softer moments of the work, but there are critical moments that are botched. For example, the sounds in the hunting song for male choruses are very uneven. And the finale for dawn is a total mess; the sounds disappear into one, loud blaring noise. I've heard recordings that have handled these forces much better.

A GREAT GURRELIEDER; AN EXQUISITE FOUR SONGS..........2006-01-09

Boulez is the world's greatest living conductor. He is an expert in Bruckner, Mahler, and Schoenberg. This realization of the Gurrelieder is about the best one currently available on CD. The Gurrelieder, by the way, is an huge song-cycle for full orchestra, vocal soloists, and chorus. Mostly completed by c.1900, the Gurrelieder is one of the great works of Schoenberg's First Period (c.1897-1907). When it finally premiered in Vienna in 1913, Schoenberg was hailed by the Viennese audience; this is funny in a bitterly ironic way, because by 1913 Schoenberg was already far past his First Period and well into his pantonal Expressionistic Second Period (c.1908-23). Moreover, Schoenberg was never "popular"--especially in the virulently anti-semitic fin-de-siecle Vienna.

The Gurrelieder is much in the vein of Richard Strauss and Mahler: huge, huge orchestral forces--sometimes used with chamber effects--in the latest, ripest, lushist late-Romantic manner. This thing is so ripe that the meat is about to fall off the bone. But actually, the piece is a lot of fun: it's kind of like a twisted modernisitc Trisitan und Isolde: it's a hoot.

But the real star here is the Op. 22 Orchestral Songs from the end of Schoenberg's Second Period. Each song lasts not more than 5 mins., so the whole piece is only about 18 mins. duration. Yet what a time! The songs are in the vein of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder: that is to say, scored for a super-large orchestra, but the timbral palette utilizes only small forces within the orchestra at the same time so that an incredible chamber music is made. The Op. 22 Songs are virutally unavailable elsewhere, so this is the recording to get.

Schoenberg: Concerto for String Quartet & Orchestra; Lied der Waldtaube; The Book of the Hanging Gardens

Average customer rating:

Schoenberg in a festive, lush, and mostly accessible mood
Schoenberg the Post-Modernist?
You must have this record
A Good Budget Introduction to Some of Schoenberg's Works

Schoenberg: Concerto for String Quartet & Orchestra; Lied der Waldtaube; The Book of the Hanging Gardens

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0006IGQ0O
Release Date: 2005-01-18

Tracks:

Largo-Allegro - Fred Sherry
Largo - Fred Sherry
Allegretto Grazioso - Fred Sherry
Hornpipe - Fred Sherry
Praludium
Gavotte-Musette-Gavotte
Intermezzo
Menuett; Trio; Menuett Da Capo
Gigue
Lied Der Waldtaube - Jennifer Lane
Under The Shelter ...
Bushes In These Paradises ...
As A Young Man I Met You ...
Since My Lips Are Still And Burning ...
Tell Me, On Which Path ...
To Everything Now I Am Dead
Fear And Hope In Turns Oppress Me ...
If Today I Do Not Touch Your Body ...
Harsh Is Our Happiness And Hard ...
The Fair Flowerbed I Contemplate, Waiting ...
When We Behind The Flower-Decked Gate ...
When I Holy Rest In Deep Hammocks ...
You Lean Against A Silver Willow ...
Speak No More Of Leaves ...
We Went Together Through The Evening Dark ...
A Conversation With Arnold Schoenberg - Arnold Schoenberg

Customer Reviews:

Schoenberg in a festive, lush, and mostly accessible mood.......2006-03-16

Schoenberg's fearsome reputation with the music-going public is sitll potent enough to clear a concert hall, which is unfortunate for anyone who has missed out hearing his tonal works. The reviewers below have given detailed descriptions of this CD. I only want to add that the Concerto for String Quartet after Handel is a delightful, festive piece, and having just discovered it myself (I heard it as the score to a Paul Taylor ballet, Spindrift), my enthusiasm is sitll fresh. The two vocal works here are nearly as acceissble. In particular, the lush post-romantic idiom of The Book of the Hanging Gardens falls on the ear as seductively as Berg's early songs or Wolf's late ones. Maybe listening to these three pieces will make it easier for listeners to accept the twelve-tone Suite for PIano, which is quite beautifully composed for the instrument, but if not, the more accessible works are a joy in themselves.

Schoenberg the Post-Modernist?.......2005-03-20

Think of an example of radical, pure, High Modernism in the twentieth century and the first name that usually comes to mind is Arnold Schoenberg. When his name is added to a program it almost automatically sends a portion of an orchestra's patrons rushing for the door, even now over 50 years after his death. And yet all through his life Schoenberg was torn between tonal and atonal music, particularly in the decades around the Second World War. Late into his life he was still producing works like the Second Chamber Symphony or the Suite for Strings which were not far removed in language from Mahler or Reger. But nothing in his output is quite like the Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra. Long lumped with his other "orchestrations" of other composers, the work is actually not so much and orchestration as an original composition around a found object, in this case a Handel Concerto Grosso. In this work, you can hear elements of what would become post-modernism later in the decade.

The Concerto is a strange and delightful work, as long as you don't compare it too strongly to the Handel work upon which it was based. Schoenberg treats his source material as an object around which he builds a more complex sound world, much in the manner that post-modern composers like Berio would do 30 years later. The work begins with a typical slow/fast first movement which sounds fairly Handelian, though with small touches in the orchestra that bring it into the German late Romantic era. But as the work goes on, these touches become dominant and would give an Historically Informed Performance ideologue an apoplectic fit. Percussion is used liberally, including prominent use of xylophone doubling the melody. Often the music is reharmonized with highly chromatic harmony remanisient of Wagner or Reger. And most radically, the String Quartet material is elaborately recomposed using Germanic developmental techniques and Romantic harmonies. The result is charming, lighthearted, though still highly skilled and rigorously composed. It's closest relative might be the Resighi Airs and Ancient Dances, though the Concerto is more thoroughly recomposed than the Italian's work. This is a Schonberg work to charm even those who can't take Verklarte Nacht. Craft's performance, with the Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble makes the most of this delightful score, not obsuring the idiosyncracies but projecting the warmth and playfulness inherent in it.

This warmth bleeds over into the disc's most forbidding work, the Suite for Piano Op. 25. This work is the first piece by Schonberg to use the twelve tone technique exclusively, though it appears in selected movements of his Op. 23 Piano Pieces and the Op 24 Serenade. The work has always struck me as fairly dry and cerebral, reinforced by my early aquaintance with Glenn Gould's almost unbearably emotionless recording of this work. But in the hands of Christopher Oldfather it is light and almost charming. The relationship between the 12 tone music and it's baroque models is extremely clear. This is a recording to make me a convert to this work. It is even better than Naxos' other available recording, the Peter Hill transversal of the complete piano music of the Second Viennese School.

Next up on the disc are two early vocal works. The Lied der Waldtaube is a chamber reduction by the composer of one of the most lovely passages in his mammouth Gurrelieder. This section of the oratorio has always been my favorite as the Wood Dove tells the heartrending tale of the death of the heroine Tove. The lush orchestration of the original is replaced by the ensemble Schoenberg used for his Chamber Symphonies. Some of the warmth of the piece is also sacrificed, but what is lost in sensuousness is gained in clarity of line. In this rendition, though it is in no sense atonal, you can clearly hear the bonds of tonality loosening in the composer. The second vocal work on the CD, Das Buch der Hangenden Gartens, is a nodal work for Schonberg. It stands along with his String Quartet No 2 just on the tonal side of the 20th century abyss from which which Schoenberg would jump in his Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11. Though the song cycle has a later opus number, most of the songs were actually written before the Piano Pieces, and in them you can hear the composer straining at the bonds of tonality, while projecting the darkness and eroticism of the texts in music that is both sensuous and vaguely hysterical. This is an amazing song cycle, the last works for voice and piano that Schoenberg would produce and one of the most important of the 20th century. It is sung deliciously by Jennifer Lane, accompanied by Oldfather, who seems to have a particularly deep affinity for Schoenberg's idiom. While this doesn't eclipse the classic De Gaetani/Kalish reading on Nonesuch, it is still an excellent rendering of a seminal work by Schonberg.

This disc, rounded out by an interview of the composer recorded in 1948, was originally released on Koch International. Thankfully, Naxos has aquired much of the Koch catelogue and is releasing it on their budget label. Much has been made of the reappearance of Craft on the Naxos label, and indeed it is an event to be celebrated. Craft is a particularly good Schoenbergian, better I think than Boulez was with Sony. Where Boulez was trying to cast members of the Second Viennese school as proto-total Serialists in the Boulez vein, Craft is content to allow Schoenberg to be who he is, a modernist with one foot in Romantic era, and another in an era that perhaps we haven't seen yet. This disc makes a wonderful introduction to the wide stylistic range of this most important yet still most maligned of 20th century composers.

You must have this record.......2005-02-25

Robert Craft is one of the most important conductors of our time. He is a specialist in Schoenberg and Stravinsky. In the 1955 he did the first complete record of Webern' s works, and I believe that Stravinsky became a twelve tone composer influenced by his then young assistant. He was also responsible for one excellent almost integral record of Schoenberg's work. The level of the musicians he worked at this time can be exemplified by names like these of Glenn Gould, Helga Pilarczyk, Bethany Beardsley , Israel Baker and the Julliard Quartet. Unfortunately there are no Cds of these records ( the only exception : Schoenberg' s Piano Concerto opus 42 with Gould) . I believe that some works he recorded at this time , like Pierrot Lunaire, The Violin Concerto and The Four Songs opus 22 , remain as very important references in Schoenberg' s discography. These records appeared in LP by the label Columbia As Sony incorporated Columbia catalogue they preferred to transfer to CD the versions conducted by Pierre Boulez, that in some cases are very inferior of these conducted by Craft.
Surprisingly I found these new records conducted and coordinated by Robert Craft, issued by Naxos. This CD is very interesting, principally because the repertoire presented here covers al the phases of Arnold Schoenberg.
Chronologically we have first the Chamber Version of the Lied der Waldtaube, one excerpt of the ultra-romantic work Gurre Lieder. What a surprise to hear this version: the voice of Jennifer Lane is perfect for this music, and Craft' s conducting is really a miracle of balance and clearness . Chronologically we have now the wonderful cycle of songs, The Book of the hanging Gardens . These 15 songs were a kind of laboratory where the author has experimented the "suspension of the tonality". The dark texts by Stephen George are used as inspiration for somber harmonies and very subtle musical fragments. The result is fascinating. Music difficult to play and to sing has been recorded sometimes by excellent musicians . At the time of Craft's integral we had the record played by Glenn Gould . The Singer was Helen Vanni. Gould' s playing was fantastic, but the voice of the singer was not exactly agreeable ...It exists in CD in the Integral of the songs of Schoenberg played by Gould and " accompanied " by some irregular singers. Other important recording of this cycle was sang by the excellent Jan de Gaetani. The version of the mezzo Jennifer Lane and the pianist Christopher Oldfather is wonderfully accomplished . All subtleties of the music are here . The absolute miracle: the song XI . The way Oldfather plays the high octaves in pp is fantastic. And the precision of the singer doesn't' disturb the expression and the musicality of the execution. This is my favorite version of this wonderful work, and the " höhepunkt" of this record.
Chronologically we have now the first work for piano completely constructed in the Dodecaphonic technique: The Suite opus 25 . This is the second recording of this work in the label Naxos. The pianist Christopher Oldfather plays the work with precision and humor . Naturally the concurrency in this repertoire is very strong: Pollini( DG)( by far the most interesting) , Serkin, Hill(Naxos), etc. Oldfather plays differently of all others, and he illuminates the work with a kind of archaic manner of playing. Finally we have the first work of the CD, and the greatest curiosity: The Version for String Quartet and orchestra that Schoenberg made of Handel' s Concerto Grosso in B flat . Is a very strange work, and has the same sound of Monn' s Concerto that Schoenberg transposed for Celo and Orchestra. For me it remains as a curiosity , nothing more than that . This version is excellent , very well conducted and very well played.
The complement , a recording of one interview with Schoenberg is one interesting document. Not essential, but.....interesting.
This CD is a must: here you have the most beautiful reading of the Hanging Gardens Songs, one excellent version of the Lied der Waldtaube, and also one very good Suite opus 25. And this Curiosity: Handel/Schoenberg.Dear friend of Naxos : I'm waiting for more records like this one. Who knows Jennifer Lane singing Schoenberg' s wonderful Orchestral Songs opus 22.....

A Good Budget Introduction to Some of Schoenberg's Works.......2005-02-20

Robert Craft has always been closely identified, understandably, with the works of Stravinsky, but he has also always been a proponent of the works of the Second Viennese School; indeed he was given credit by Stravinsky for urging the composer to study some of those works closely. This disc contains a mixture of works from all of Schoenberg's various styles. There is the post-Romantic 'Lied der Waldtaube' ('Song of the Wood Dove') from 'Gurre-Lieder' (in a chamber arrangement made by the composer); the Suite for Piano, Op. 25, perhaps the earliest of his twelve-tone compositions; his neo-classic arrangement (recomposition, actually) of Handel's 'Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 7' as the 'Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra'; and finally, the great twelve-tone song-cycle 'Der Buch des Hängenden Gärten' ('The Book of the Hanging Gardens') for mezzo-soprano and piano. Craft either conducts ('Concerto', 'Waldtaube') or plays piano accompaniment ('Hanging Gardens'); the only thing he doesn't participate in is the Piano Suite, which is played by Christopher Oldfather.

For me, by far the most interesting work here is the new composition Schoenberg made for string quartet and orchestra based on the Handel concerto grosso. The string quartet playing here is one made up ad hoc, one gathers, by Fred Sherry, cello, a long-time collaborator with Mr Craft. The other players a Jennifer Frautschi and Jesse Mills, violins, and Richard O'Neill, viola. This piece is hard to describe. One way to think of it is that the orchestra plays--more or less--the Handel original, and the quartet riffs on its themes. But that's really not quite what happens. For one thing, Schoenberg goes off on such original tangents along the way, repeatedly, that one is really more focused on the quartet, although they are often a part of the orchestral texture, and less clearly, much of the time, on the harmonic and thematic backbone the Handel provides. It is an utterly charming work. Certainly the quartet must consist of virtuosi but I was amused that in the booklet notes by Craft he comments that the quartet part is "one of the most demanding for the solo instruments of a quartet since the Beethoven's 'Grosse Fuge.'" Well, uh, maybe, but I would suggest there have been far more difficult quartet works than this one; think of Elliott Carter's quartets, for example. Be that as it may, the quartet acquits themselves nicely, as does the 'Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble' conducted by Craft. But I still prefer the recording made by the American String Quartet with Gerard Schwarz conducting members of the Seattle Symphony, still available. It strikes me that their playing is more supple.

Christopher Oldfather plays the wonderful Piano Suite with lan and Schwung; this is a rhythmically tricky work and he not only manages it nicely, he gives it a lot of oomph. This is the sort of twelve-tone work that people who don't ordinarily like that style of music wind up smiling over. I think that's at least partly because it still sounds like hyperchromatic Romantic music (think Berg, say) and because of its rhythmic ingenuity.

Jennifer Lane, mezzo, sings the 'Song of the Wood Dove' in a chamber arrangement made by Schoenberg using the same fifteen instruments he used in his Chamber Symphony. Her singing is simply lovely, and if one wishes one can compare this performance with the full-orchestra performance she gives with Craft and the Philharmonia Orchestra, a recording just recently released (and reviewed by me here at Amazon). [Naxos does not provide the text for the Wood Dove's Song; it is available at their website, but without an English translation of the German.] Lane also sings the 'Book of the Hanging Gardens' accompanied by Craft. Lovely as it is, though, I think the classic recording with Jan de Gaetani and Gilbert Kalish is superior for de Gaetani's knowing projection of Stefan George's text. The full text in German and English is provided.

The final band is a conversation between composer Halsey Stevens and Schoenberg recorded in 1949. It lasts about six minutes and is not particularly enlightening, but it does give one the chance to hear Schoenberg's genial manner.

This is a budget release, and even though I have some minor quibbles about some of the performances, it is a good introduction to these works.

TT=79:59

Scott Morrison

Verdi - Requiem & Menotti - The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi

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Verdi, Menotti, and Schoenberg - a glorious package from 1964
Good singing in the Requiem, but Leinsdorf is metronomic
Investment quality, not just for the 'Requiem'...
Excellent Verdi and Menotti
Leinsdorf Conducts Verdi and Menotti.

Verdi - Requiem & Menotti - The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi

Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe; Valses Nobles et Sentimentales; Etc. [Australia]

ASIN: B00005JII2
Release Date: 2001-09-11

Tracks:

Requiem & Kyrie - Carlo Bergonzi
Dies Irae - Carlo Bergonzi
Tuba Mirum - Carlo Bergonzi
Mors Stupebit - Carlo Bergonzi
Liber Scriptus - Carlo Bergonzi
Quid Sum Miser - Carlo Bergonzi
Rex Tremendae - Carlo Bergonzi
Recordare - Carlo Bergonzi
Ingemisco - Carlo Bergonzi
Confutatis - Carlo Bergonzi
Dies Irae - Carlo Bergonzi
Lacrymosa - Carlo Bergonzi
Domine Jesu Christe - Carlo Bergonzi
Hostias - Carlo Bergonzi
Sanctus - Carlo Bergonzi
Agnus Dei - Carlo Bergonzi

Tracks:

Lux Aeterna - Carlo Bergonzi
Libera Me, Domine - Carlo Bergonzi
Dies Irae - Carlo Bergonzi
Libera Me, Domine - Carlo Bergonzi
And Now The Night Begins - George London
Good Men Let Us Pass - George London
Behold The Singing Children - George London
Away, Away! - George London
Give Them Your Blessing - George London
Why Did I Let Them Leave? - George London
I Shall Kiss Our Lord's Tomb - George London
I Blessed Them To Their Doom - George London
Do Not Fret, My Brother - George London
Sleep, Sleep In Peace - George London
Interlude - George London
Song Of The Wood-Dove - George London

Customer Reviews:

Verdi, Menotti, and Schoenberg - a glorious package from 1964.......2007-04-19

There is so much going for this set that I'm willing to give a pass on a few distracting blemishes and go for five stars.

First, the Verdi Requiem. At 81", this is one of the "faster" renditions of this work. But you won't notice any "rushing" anywhere. The Recordare, Offertorio, Agnus Dei, and other gentle spots retain their relaxed, contemplative atmospheres.

While this set was recorded in October 1964 (as was the rest of the album), the recorded sound is quite impressive. I had my stereo turned up quite a bit the entire time.

In the Dies Irae, the chorus actually drowns out the orchestra (I'm sure this involved a little engineering hocus pocus, but the effect is electrifying). The cello opening of the Offertorio is lush and rich - you will really enjoy that.

The Boston Chorus pro Musica was founded in 1949 by Alfred Nash Patterson, and has twice received Grammy nominations for recordings made with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on the RCA label. Here they demonstrate their high professional sound with a powerful reading of the Requiem. From the hushed opening of the Kyrie, to the shattering terror of the Dies Irae, to the gentle Agnus Dei, and the choral intricacies of the Libera Me, the pro Musica amply proves that they have mastered every tool needed for this difficult score.

The soloists were high on name recognition, but a bit of a mixed bag in quality. Birgit Nilsson is one of my favorite opera stars, but she seemed noticeably flat in several parts of the Requiem, especially the Agnus Dei. Was this an engineering glitch maybe? Oddly enough, her high notes, like the high C in the Salva Me section, and the high B flat in Libera Me sounded right on target.

Carlo Bergonzi gets a little too syrupy for my taste in the Ingemisco, but I loved his full-voiced piano at the beginning of Hostias. Ezio Flagello simply blows me away. His cavernous sound grabs you the first moment you hear him in Kyrie. His Confutatis is a standard that I will be measuring others by from now on.

The Gian Carlo Menotti opera "The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi" was written in 1963, and recorded Oct 1964 with George London and Lili Chookasian. The 31-minute, one-act drama focuses on a dying Medieval bishop who is wracked by guilt over his role in the Children's Crusade (1212 AD).

George London is a fine actor, but somehow his sneering tone doesn't suit me for the character of a noble minister who is suffering intense heartache. Chookasian, however, is great as the Nun who tries to comfort the guilt-ridden bishop. The children's choruses are from local Catholic schools and sound quite good in their many appearances. The Boston Symphony plays the virtuosic score superbly. However, the constant bashing on the drums really got old (my stereo was turned up, remember).

The two excerpts from Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder are performed so beautifully, it should be enough to convince anyone to purchase the full CD of Schoenberg's rich pre-twelve-tone masterpiece. The Interlude is Richard Strauss as you've always dreamed of him: lush, overwhelming emotion that will bring tears to your eyes.

The Song of the Wood-Dove is, for me, the piece on this entire CD that showcases Lili Chookasian the best. She possesses a superhuman range that can belt out high notes like a soprano and a middle range that can pierce the thickest orchestral texture. She has a lovely sound, the kind you can listen to over and over without getting tired.

The 36-page booklet includes texts, translations, a full libretto of the Menotti (although a few words are a little different from what the soloists actually sing), a bio on Erich Leinsdorf, extensive program notes, and a two-page "History of Living Stereo."

Good singing in the Requiem, but Leinsdorf is metronomic.......2006-06-16

This reissue attracted Living Stereo buffs, but otherwise RCA has never shown much confidence in Leinsdorf's Verdi Requiem from Boston in the Sixties. His rather wooden condcuting, which sets a tempo and keeps to it like a metronome, was actually on purpose: it fit Leinsdorf's theory of "objective" conducting. Unfortunately, it also drains the Requiem of its operatic passion nad religious fervor most of the time.

Bergonzi is a standout in the Ingemisco, which he performs with security and style. Lili Chookasian and Ezio Flagello are both a bit thick-voiced and dull, but certainly quite good singers.
Strangely, the Gramophone reviewer thought that the big drawback was Birgit Nilsson and her out-of-tune singing. She is otherwise glemaing and poewrful here. Though known to go sharp in her high register at the Met when her role was most taxing (Brunnhilde, Turandot) I don't quite get the complaint on this recording. But no one should expect Nilsson to sound like a Verdi soprano; she tries to soften the steel in her voice and is generally successful. The Boston Pro Musica is an enormous improvement over the student choruses that sang on practically every BSO recording under Munch.

As to the fillers, you will find Menotti's cantata on the Children's Crusade, "The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi," an exercise in saccharine religiosity or genuinely moving in its simplicity. I fall smewhere in between but was happy t hear it once. For Menotti collectors, this is hte only recording available. Lili Chookasian sings powerfully, as she does on the Wood Dove's aria from Gurrelieder, effectively conducted by Leinsdorf.

Investment quality, not just for the 'Requiem'..........2006-05-06

People will undoubtedly be interested in this 'Requiem' if only because of Nilsson (though she did not sing the concert performances it was based on). She is in her prime, as are all the soloists. The BSO is in top form and totally responsive to Leinsdorf's direction, which seem to to me to be more in the vein of Reiner than Guilini. BUT...there'e more.

'The Death of the Archbishop of Brindisi' is a real treasure. A sort of operatic cantata, it defies description, but is powerful and moving as others have noted. George London fully justifies his legendary status, but the real revelation to me was Lili Chookasian, an extraordinary voice (in the 'Requiem too) that is grossly underappreciated. If there is any doubt, listen to the closing work:

'Song of the Wood Dove' from Gurreleider: early Schoenberg in full Wagnerian glory. Follwing the beautiful orchestral interlude, Chookasian delivers gloriously.

And finally, the RCA engineers have captured the sound of Symphony Hall putting many later attempts by others to shame.

Excellent Verdi and Menotti.......2005-02-17

Along with the classic Toscanini and Reiner recordings, this is probably the best recording of the Verdi Requiem I have heard. While Leinsdorf has had his detractors, particularly during his Boston period, he aquits himself nobly here, with his skillful handling of orchestra, soloists, and chorus throughout. And what soloists! Bergonzi, as has been pointed out in other posts, brings a rarely-heard beauty to the tenor part, and Flagello could scare any sinner with the way he sings "mors," an octave lower each time, in the Dies Irae. But the real suprise is Nilsson. Apart from her Turandot, Aida, and Minnie, hers was not a voice much associated with the Italian repertoire. You'd never know it here, however, and I defy any Italian soprano to handle the part better.

But that's only part of the package. Also heard here, and unavailable in any form since it was initially released in 1964, is the Leinsdorf/BSO recording of Menotti's rarely performed "Death of the Bishop of Brindisi," with the part of the Bishop sung by the incomparable George London. His handling of the part of the tormented Bishop could break your heart, as it does with me everytime I listen to it. As a man dying in torment and fear because of the children he unwittingly sent to die, he is utterly believeable. This is a true singing actor at his best.

Finally, what an odd, sad, ironic coincidence it is that one of the best recordings of the Verdi Requiem should have been re-released on the darkest day in U.S. history: September 11, 2001.

Leinsdorf Conducts Verdi and Menotti........2005-01-28

Erich Leinsdorf's interpretations of Verdi are among the best of any conductor. This recording took place during his tenure with the Boston Symphony. He was a very strict conductor who got all there was to get out his performers. This recording is no exception to that.
The orchestra is outstanding. Listen to the accents in the Dies Irae movement at the beginning from the chorus and the orchestra. I have never heard them done that way. I love that approach. Also the string playing, especially the stringendi and the precision in terms of the bowing. The two key ingredients in this piece to make it work are fire and sensitivity. By that I mean that the beginning has to have the ultimate beauty to respect Verdi's tribute to Rossini. Also that Dies Irae has to have a great fire to it. Leinsdorf does both of those things the best on here. It is the conductor's job to get those things out of the players and the singers.

Speaking of the singing Carlo Bergonzi's singing is a free voice lesson. Ingemisco is one of his best pieces of singing because of the nuances and the technique. Young singers can learn a lot from this. The bass Ezio Flagello and the two women one of them being Nilsson do a fine job as well. Nilsson is not really cut out for Verdi, but she still does a good job here. Anyway, the Menotti is a wonderful piece as well. George London is great. He is one of the greatest bass-baritones of all time. His diction and sensitivity to the music is very apparent here. Leinsdorf gets him to sing with great emotion and intensity. I can't emphasize enough that it is the conductor who gets people to do these things. All and all a great set that is worth ordering because it is a good deal.

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder; Scriabin: Poem of Ecstasy; Poem of Fire

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Schoenberg-Stokoswki: A Vast Architecture in Sound

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder; Scriabin: Poem of Ecstasy; Poem of Fire

Manufacturer: Pearl
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Oratorios | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Oratorios | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000000WNR
Release Date: 1995-02-03

Tracks:

Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Orchestervorspiel
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Nun Dampft die Damm'rung
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: O, wenn des Mondes Strahlen
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Ross! Mein Ross!
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Sterne jubeln
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: So tanzen die Engel vor Gottes Thron nicht
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Nun sag ich dir zum ersten Mal
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Es ist Mitternachzeit
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Du sendest mir einen Liebesblick
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Du wunderliche Tove!
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Orchesterzwischenspiel
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Tauben von Gurre! Stimme der
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Herrgott, weisst du, was du tatest
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Erwacht, Konig Waldemars Mannen wert!
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Deckel des Sarges klappert
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Gerusst, o Konig

Tracks:

Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Mits Toves Stimee Flustert der Wald
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: 'Ein seltsamer Vogel ist so'n Aal..
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Du strenger Richter droben
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Der Hahn erhebt den Kopf zur Kraht
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Orchestervorspiel
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Herr Gansefuss, Frau Gansekraut
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Seht die Sonne
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: A Discussion By Leopold Stokowski
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Scriabin: Poem Of Ecstasy
Scriabin Poem Of Ecstasy Poem Of Fire: Scriabin: Prometheus: The Poem Of Fire

Customer Reviews:

Schoenberg-Stokoswki: A Vast Architecture in Sound.......2000-10-13

I crusade - inveterately, it seems, and probably vainly, too - on behalf of what the review magazines usually call "archival" or "historical" documents: They mean recordings from prior to 1950 or so made in the era either of electrical registration of the master-copy on acetate or metal discs or of early magnetic-tape preservation of the broadcast or studio performance. (The two eras overlap.) I thus constantly confront the audiophile mentality: "Why would I want to hear those pops and ticks from the lacquer platters, or the static-hiss and low fidelity from antiquated magnetic tapes?" My answer has become resolute and invariable: "The sound captured by engineers with that pre-stereo, pre-solid-state, pre-digital equipment is certainly different from what modern ears expect, but it is not inferior." In some cases, indeed, the old recordings, especially the early magnetic tapes from Germany and Holland, yield a sense of natural orchestral sound that no stereo or digital item has ever captured. It's true that stereo, in particular, can enhance a listener's appreciation of certain kinds of music, especially of highly contrapuntal music or, say, of chamber ensemble music. Between Bernstein's Tchaikovsky, however, from the 1960s and Mengelberg's from the 1930s, I'd say it's a toss-up: What will decide a fellow is his judgment of the performance, not of the technical perfection of the registration. All of which brings me to one of the most audacious and successful choral-orchestral recordings ever made: Leopold Stokowski's 1932 (that's right - 1932!) playback version of Arnold Schoenberg's gargantuan, Tristanesque cantata, "Gurrelieder," based on texts by the Danish poet Jens-Peter Jacobson. The reissuing house is Pearl, which specializes in this sort of thing. By Zeus, but this is sprawling, indulgent, harmonically overripe music for soli, chorus and (huge) orchestra! Schoenberg distills everything he had learned from Wagner and Mahler into his great tapestry, which he began around 1900, set aside, and did not complete until 1912. Stokowski, in spoken remarks, calls "Gurrelieder" a specimen of vast "architecture in sound." Now it is Pearl's policy, in distinction to that, say, of Dutton Laboratories, not to fiddle with the sound on the master-documents, except to filter slightly some of the noise from worn platters. Even so, the achievement of the RCA engineers in 1932 will astonish: The orchestral groups are clearly differentiated, the vocal soli sound clearly and the words are audible; the choruses (the real challenge) come through with immediacy and a minimum of distortion. What also manifests itself undeniably is Stokowski's vital commitment to this music. It was Stokowski who gave the North American premiere of Mahler's Eighth Symphony, in Philadelphia, in 1916. We hear the Philadelphians in Schoenberg, too, their velvety strings and their crisp, singing woodwinds. The brass snarl effectively when the score requires it. The tutti passages defy any expectation of what "old" recordings should sound like. Stokowski liked these towering late-Romantic edifices and it tells. Pearl fills out the second disc with two Scriabin items, "The Poem of Ecstasy" and "Prometheus," recorded in the midst of the depression with reduced forces but worth getting to know nonetheless. The real prize is Schoenberg.

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder / Voigt, Larmore, Moser, Riegel, Weikl, K.M. Brandauer; Sinopoli

Average customer rating:

Excellent
A glorious, resplendent performance!
Five Stars Aren't Enough!

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder / Voigt, Larmore, Moser, Riegel, Weikl, K.M. Brandauer; Sinopoli
Arnold Schoenberg , Giuseppe Sinopoli , Deborah Voigt , Jennifer Larmore , Staatskapelle Dresden , Chor des Mitteldeutschen Rundfunks Leipzig , Kenneth Riegel Thomas Moser , and Klaus Maria Brandauer
Manufacturer: Elektra / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000000SR9
Release Date: 1996-06-11

Tracks:

Gurrelieder: l. Teil - Orchester-Vorspiel
Gurrelieder: l. Teil - Nun dampft die Damm'rung jeden Ton (Waldemar)
Gurrelieder: l. Teil - O, wenn des Mondes Strahlen milde gleiten (Tove)
Gurrelieder: l. Teil - Ross! Mein Ross! Was schleichst du so trag! (Waldemar)
Gurrelieder: l. Teil - Sterne jubeln, das Meer, es leuchtet (Tove)
Gurrelieder: l. Teil - So tanzen die Engel vor Gottes Thron nicht (Waldemar)
Gurrelieder: l. Teil - Nun sag' ich dir zum ersten Mal (Tove)
Gurrelieder: l. Teil - Es ist Mitternachtszeit (Waldemar)
Gurrelieder: l. Teil - Du sendest mir einen Liebesblick (Tove)
Gurrelieder: l. Teil - Du wunderliche Tove! (Waldemar)
Gurrelieder: l. Teil - Orchester-Zwischenspiel
Gurrelieder: l. Teil - Tauben von Gurre! (Waldtaube)

Tracks:

Gurrelieder: ll. Teil - Herrgott, weist du, was du tatest (Waldemar)
Gurrelieder: lll. Teil - Erwacht, Konig Waldemars Mannen wert! (Waldemar)
Gurrelieder: lll. Teil - deckel des sarges klappert und klappt (Bauer)
Gurrelieder: lll. Teil - Gerust, o Konig, an Gurresees Starnd! (Waldemars Mannen)
Gurrelieder: lll. Teil - Mit Toves Stimme flustert der Wald (Waldemar)
Gurrelieder: lll. Teil - Ein seltsamer Vogel ist so'n Aal (Klaus-Narr)
Gurrelieder: lll. Teil - Du strenger Richter droben (Waldemar)
Gurrelieder: lll. Teil - Der Hahn erhebt den Kopf zur Kraht (Waldemars Mannen)
Gurrelieder: Des Sommerwindes wilde Jagd - Orchester Vorspiel
Gurrelieder: Des Sommerwindes wilde Jagd - Herr gansefus, Frau Gansekraut (Sprecher)
Gurrelieder: Des Sommerwindes wilde Jagd - Seht die Sonne (Chor)

Amazon.com essential recording

Until Seiji Ozawa's classic account of Schönberg's early postromantic masterpiece comes back into print, this is the one to look for. Sinopoli's performance took a while to make an impression on me, I have to admit. Lush, languorous Part One, despite the enormous forces Schönberg calls for in the work, is largely slow, intimate love music. That means it needs to be kept moving, and momentum is distinctly at a premium here with Giuseppe Sinopoli at the helm. On repeated listenings, however, it becomes increasingly difficult not to be seduced by the sheer beauty of the playing of the Staatskapelle Dresden or won over by the ardent singing of the soloists. And since the latter parts of the piece take off very nicely, culminating in a hugely apocalyptic wild hunt and final hymn to the sun, the performance ultimately leaves you feeling quite satisfied. Teldec's very fine sonics, captured live, also add to the glory of the sounds coming from the orchestra and singers. Just have a little patience for the first half-hour or so; it will pay dividends. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2005-12-01

Everything that prior reviewers say about this recording is correct. The soloists, particularly the terrific Deborah Voigt, are first rate, the choral work is splendid, and Sinopoli does an excellent job with the Staatskapelle Dresden. Listeners who think about Schoenberg as 'difficult' serialist composer would do well to pay attention to this work. Gurrelieder is a powerful work in the Romantic idiom in the same way that much of Mahler's orchestral music is an extension of 19th century romantic music. Parts are truly powerful. For my part, I find the tone of Gurrelieder a little relentless but this is a major work from a great composer.

A glorious, resplendent performance! .......2005-02-20

When live performance recordings of the caliber Teldec lavished on this mighty production of Schoenberg's GURRELIEDER can be made, the case for studio recordings pales. For this reviewer this is the finest overall performance of this challenging penultimate post-romantic opus available.

Giuseppe Sinopoli initiated this series of recordings when he held the title of principal conductor of the Dresden Staatskapelle from 1992 until his untimely death in 2001. Few conductors have the sense of perspective of the overall grand scheme of this huge work that was Sinopoli's. This is well documented in this the first of what Teldec Classics International series entitled "Live from the Semper Opera Dresden."

Sinopoli's tempi are languid without becoming ponderous. His orchestra performs with a lush fully focused sound, able to take advantage of not only the ample strings settings but also of the solo parts. As far as the artists he employed for this performance they are easily the best of the competition. For instance, Deborah Voigt as Tove has the power and lush quality of sound to sail over the large orchestra in a way that Karita Mattila under Rattle (n the EMI recording) simply couldn't manage. Her sound is never less than gorgeous. Recorded in 1996, this performance by Thomas Moser as Waldemar is fresh, perfectly urgent and beautifully sung; his repeated performance on the Rattle EMI recording in 2002 sounds threadbare by comparison. And while it is difficult to find a Wood Dove better than von Otter's for Rattle, here is the very young and fresh and lush Jennifer Larmore in one of her finest recorded moments. Add Kenneth Riegel as the Fool, Bernd Weikl as Bauer, and most especially Klaus Maria Brandauer (a world renowned and honored actor) as the speaker and the cast is as fine as can be found.

Yet all of these ingredients would be wanting were it not for the choral climaxes that crown this work and Sinopoli enhanced his own chorus with choruses from Leipzig and Prague to produce some of the most rapturous choral singing available. Surely Sinopoli's extensive experience conducting opera contributed to not only his 'casting' of this work but also of the dramatic intensity of this live performance. The final choral apotheosis to the rising sun is extraordinary!

If there were only one recording to make the music world honor the memory of Giuseppe Sinopoli, this might be it. Recommended without reservation! Grady Harp, February 2005

Five Stars Aren't Enough!.......2004-02-06

This is an awe inspiring recording.

Dresden's brilliant Staatskapelle Orchestra plays its' heart out.

The choirs are magnificent.

And the soloists, in their nearly impossible vocal tasks, cover themselves with glory upon glory.

Giuseppe Sinopoli was far from being my favorite conductor. However, it would be ridiculous to deny him his due here. His interpretation is, simply put, the best I've heard in 40 years.

And the recorded sound? Unbelievable in it's clarity and power. The smallest detail can be heard, revealing heretofore unknown textures. Yet the mightiest climaxes are achieved with almost frightening force. The dynamic range is astounding.

As I said, awe inspiring.

If you are looking for the greatest performance of Shoenberg's monumental "Gurrelieder" ever committed to record, your search, in my humble opinion, is over.

Case closed.

Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder
Average customer rating:

Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder on Naxos

The orchestra is radiant

Equal to the Best Recordings of Gurre-Lieder

Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Schoenberg: Concerto for String Quartet & Orchestra; Lied der Waldtaube; The Book of the Hanging Gardens

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Webern: Symphony; Six Pieces; Concerto for 9 Instruments

Schoenberg: Serenade; Variations, Op. 31; Bach Orchestrations

ASIN: B000675OGW
Release Date: 2005-01-18

Tracks:

Orchestral Prelude
Waldemar: 'Nun Dampft Die Dammrung Jeden Ton'
Tove: 'O, Wenn Des Mondes Strahlen Leise Gleiten'
Waldemar: 'Ross! Mein Ross! Was Schleichst Du So Trag!'
Tove: 'Sterne Jubeln, Das Meer, Es Leuchtet'
Waldemar: 'So Tanzen Die Engel Vor Gottes Thron Nicht'
Tove: 'Nun Sag' Ich Dir Zum Ersten Mal'
Waldemar: 'Es Ist Mitternachtzeit'
Tove: 'Du Sendest Mir Einen Liebesblick'
Waldemar: 'Du Wunderliche Tove!'
Orchestral Interlude
Voice Of The Wood Dove

Tracks:

Orchestral Prelude. Waldemar: 'Herrgott, Weisst Du, Was Du Tatest'
Orchestral Prelude. Waldemar: 'Erwacht, Konig Waldemars Mannen Wert!'
Peasant: 'Deckel Des Sarges Klappert'
Chorus: Waldemar's Men: 'Gegrusst, O Konig'
Waldemar: 'Mit Toves Stimme Flusteert Der Wald'
Klaus-Narr: 'Ein Seltsamer Vogel Ist So'n Aal'
Waldemar: 'Du Strenger Richter Droben'
Waldemar's Men: 'Der Hahn Erhebt Den Kopf Zur Kraht'
Orchestral Prelude: The Summer Wind's Wild Hunt Speaker (Melodrama): 'Herr Gansefuss, Frau Gansekraut'
Chorus: 'Seht Die Sonne'

Customer Reviews:

Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder on Naxos.......2006-08-16

I was blown away by Arnold Schoenberg's (1874 -- 1951) Gurre-Lieder, an immense work for large orchestra, chorus, four soloists and speaker which sets a text by the Danish poet Jens Peter Jacobsen (1847 -- 1885). Gurre-Lieder is a stunning, late romantic work, which Schoenberg composed around 1900-1901, but he completed the massive orchestration only in 1911. Among other things, this music will show the listener how atonal music, for which Schoenberg is best remembered, is an outgrowth ot late romanticism. There simply was no other place to take music at the time. The work is powerfully performed on this CD by the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Simon Joly Chorale conducted by Robert Craft. Unfortunately, the liner notes are not helpful in approaching the music or the story. Thus I will elaborate for the benefit of the listener who is just coming to the Gurre-Lieder.

It is easy to consider Gurre-Lieder, as I did at first, as an overblown, decadent romantic work -- Wagner and Mahler carried to yet further excess. The work has these components indeed. It has a medieval setting in the remote world of Danish kings. The work begins in melancholy twilight and the story revolves around the love affair between King Waldemar and his mistress Tove. Tove dies at the hand of the jealous queen, and Waldemar curses God. In punishment, he too dies and is condemned to ride through the woods with his retinue of ghosts and former followers in search of Tove. All this, and Schoenberg's music setting the story, is surely the stuff of late romanticism, but the poem and music take a turn. In a pivotal section, Waldemar and his quest are mocked by a jester, Klaus-Norre, who complains that he is denied the rest of the grave by Waldemar's passion. Waldemar's men eventually return to their graves followed by a long spoken section which celebrates the beauty of life and nature and the joy of being alive. The work concludes with an enormous hymn of praise to the sun, in a traditional key of C major. The finale is the only portion of this work in which the full orchestra and massive chorus are both utilized.

Thus, Gurre-Lieder opens in a spirit of late-romantic decadence, but it turns to a world of realism and hope. The critic Malcolm MacDonald offered an excellent analysis of Gurre-Lieder in his book "Schoenberg" in the Master Musicians Series, concluding that the work as a whole was "very far from the ambiguous 'love-death' of Tristan, and equally far from the conventional idea of 'decadent" late-Romanticism." (p. 96)

Gurre-Lieder rests not on the story but on the music Schoenberg composed for it, which is passionate in the extreme, full of contrasts, and lyrical passages for the soloists and detailed writing for the orchestra. The work opens with an orchestral prelude featuring the light sounds of the harp, and the lengthy orchestral interludes throughout the work do much to carry it forward.

The lengthy Part I of the work consists of eight increasingly intense love songs performed alternately by Waldemar and Tove. Part I concludes with a desparing "song of the wood dove" announcing the death of Tove at the instigation of the queen.

The very brief Part II continues the tone following Tove's death as Waldemar curses God. The final part III includes songs in which Waldemar continues his quest in death, erie passages for choruses of his men, as well as more down-to earth passages for a peasant who watches the strange action, the fool, and, ultimately the speaker and full ensemble in a paean of praise to the sun and life.

The Gurre-Lieder is rarely performed live due to its length and the massive forces it requres. But it is beautifully served on this CD. For those listeners wanting to explore a work that straddles the boundaries between late romanticism and contemporary sensibility, Gurre-Lieder is an appropriate place to start.

Robin Friedman

The orchestra is radiant.......2006-02-15

Some of the singing is a little uneven on this recording. When it's good it's very good. When it's off, at least the orchestra still sounds wonderful. The Gurre-Lieder is one of the most bombastic works of the late romantic period. If Wagner and Mahler had the bombast knob up to 10, Schoenberg added and used 11. One thing that gets lost a lot when people only consider Schoenberg's atonal and serial music is that he could write some sublimely lyrical melodies and these medlodies, a rich harmonic pallate and mindblowing orchestration make the Gurre-Lieder one of the most beautiful works from the period. Robert Craft lets the music sing in the bombastic, passionate romantic way it needs to sing. It even sent a few chills down my spine.

Equal to the Best Recordings of Gurre-Lieder.......2005-02-16

Robert Craft is not ordinarily thought of as a master of ultraromantic music. One associates him with Stravinsky and the more advanced music of the Second Viennese School. Schoenberg was certainly the founder and guru of that movement, but his 'Gurre-Lieder' was composed before he ventured into atonality. It is a huge Romantic work, almost two hours long, that could almost have been written by Wagner or Strauss. It calls for huge forces--an expanded orchestra, a huge chorus, vocal soloists and a narrator--and it is difficult to mount. But it has fared very well on records and I will admit that I had some doubts about whether a recording conducted by Craft with virtually unknown soloists would be competitive. I need not have feared. Craft, whom I associate with no-nonsense tempi, takes it rather slowly, luxuriating in the post-romantic textures and allowing the sound to bloom, and he has superb musical collaborators here. Indeed, this is a great performance. The singers are unexpectedly quite good. Melanie Diener, the Tove, may not be as lush-voiced as Jessye Norman on Ozawa's recording, but she certainly doesn't have to take a back seat to her either. Her voice rings out thrillingly with ardor. Stephen O'Mara, tenor, as Waldemar is equally thrilling. I'd never heard of him but I can easily imagine him singing Siegmund at the Met or Bayreuth. In her brief appearance as the Wood-Dove, Jennifer Lane sings with a voluptuous mezzo. Surprisingly, to me, Martyn Hill, a tenor I've always found to be rather light-voiced, sings the scene of Klaus-Narr both firmly and with dramatic aptness. The brief appearance of the Peasant is sung nicely by bass David Wilson-Johnson. Veteran tenor, Ernst Haefliger, now in his eighties, speaks the Poet's lines in a modified Sprechstimme, effectively done. The Simon Joly Chorus sing their parts with rich sonority and thrust.

Of course, Gurre-Lieder is notable for its dense and important orchestral sections. The Philharmonia are simply marvelous; I'd venture to say they are more effective than the Boston Symphony in the old Ozawa recording and the equal of Rattle's Berlin Philharmonic. Just listen to the Prélude that begins the piece. But even more, listen to their accompaniments of the singers. A note about that: The singers are not highlighted quite as much as one might expect, and indeed they sound much as they might in a live performance in a hall. The only times I've heard Gurre-Lieder live there have been moments when the orchestra all but drowns out the soloists. That doesn't happen here, but at times it comes close. This is, I think, what Schoenberg wanted, actually, since the erotic ecstasy of Jens Peter Jacobsen's text is conveyed as much by orchestral texture as by voices.

And speaking of text, Naxos does not print either the German text or an English translation, and there is not much of a synopsis provided. The German text can be found at the Naxos website. And I found a webpage elsewhere (that of Vox Records) that provides both German text and English translation. It is here: [http://www.cd101.net/VBX204notes.html]

This performance originally appeared on Koch International, not all that long ago; the recording itself was made in Watford [England] Colosseum in October 2001.

Heartily recommended.

TT=1:57:48

Scott Morrison

Philadelphia Orchestra and Leopold Stokowski

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Philadelphia Orchestra and Leopold Stokowski
Philadelphia Orchestra , Stokowski , and Schoenberg
Manufacturer: Andante
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Leopold Stokowski, Conductor

ASIN: B00007E8LP
Release Date: 2002-10-29

Album Description

This four-CD set showcases the Philadelphia Orchestra with conductor Leopold Stokowski, the world-famous originator of the lush "Philadelphia Sound." The centerpiece in this collection of vintage Philadelphia/Stokowski achievements is the premiere 1932 recording of Schoenberg's epic post-Romantic cantata Gurrelieder. Dating from 1927 to 1940, the rest of the repertoire ranges from the conductor's own "symphonic synthesis" of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov to Rimsky-Korsakov, Hindemith and such rarities as a setting of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven by Arkadi Dubensky. The 158-page booklet features photos of Stokowski, his soloists and the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winner Tim Page, a producer's note by Ward Marston and an essay by longtime Philadelphia Inquirer critic Daniel Webster ("Stokowski and Philadelphia: Virtuosity as Glamour").

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder - The Two Chamber Symphonies / Norman, Troyanos, McCracken; Ozawa, Imbal

Average customer rating:

A fantastic bargain in the Schoenberg catalog
Seiji Ozawa must mean "chief blunderer" in Japanese.
almost ideal
This is an excellent recording
Ozawa isn't truly the man for this masterpiece

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder - The Two Chamber Symphonies / Norman, Troyanos, McCracken; Ozawa, Imbal
Arnold Schoenberg , Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra , Boston Symphony Orchestra , Eliahu Inbal Seiji Ozawa , Jessye Norman , Tatiana Troyanos , Kim Scown , Tanglewood Festival Chorus , James McCracken , David Arnold , and Eliahu Inbal
Manufacturer: Philips
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Schoenberg: Gurrelieder; Sir Simon Rattle; Berlin Philharmonic & soloists
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Schoenberg: The String Quartets
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Pelleas und Melisande / Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

ASIN: B00002DDWQ
Release Date: 2000-01-11

Tracks:

Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 96
Gurrelieder: Part One: Orchestral Prelude
Gurrelieder: Part One: Nun daempft die Daemm'rung
Gurrelieder: Part One: O, wenn des mondes Strahlen
Gurrelieder: Part One: Ross! Mein Ross!
Gurrelieder: Part One: Sterne jubeln
Gurrelieder: Part One: So tanzen die Engel vor Gottes Thron nicht
Gurrelieder: Part One: Nun sag ich dir zum ersten Mal
Gurrelieder: Part One: Es ist Mitternachtszeit
Gurrelieder: Part One: Du sendest mir einen Liebesblick
Gurrelieder: Part One: Du wunderliche Tove!
Gurrelieder: Part One: Tauben von Gurre!

Tracks:

Gurrelieder: Part 2: Herrgott, weisst du, was du tatest
Gurrelieder: Part 3: Die wild Jagd: Erwacht, Konig Waldemars Mannen wert!
Gurrelieder: Part 3: Die wild Jagd: Deckel des Sarges klappert
Gurrelieder: Part 3: Die wild Jagd: Gegrusst, o Konig
Gurrelieder: Part 3: Die wild Jagd: Mit Toves Stimme flustert der Wald
Gurrelieder: Part 3: Die wild Jagd: 'Ein seltsamer Vogel ist so'n Aal'
Gurrelieder: Part 3: Die wild Jagd: Du strenger Richter droben
Gurrelieder: Part 3: Die wild Jagd: Der Hahn erhebt den Kopf zur Kraht
Des Sommerwindes wilde Jagd
Herr Gaensefuss, Frau Gaensekraut
Seht die Sonne
Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op. 38: 1. Adagio
Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op. 38: 2. Con Fuoco

Amazon.com

This is the biggest piece of music that ever gets performed with any regularity. Anyone who avoids Schönberg because his name is synonymous with that nasty, atonal stuff need have no fear. This is a ripely romantic score with big tunes and cinematic orchestration. The story is simple. King Waldemar of Gurre is fooling around with Tove. The queen finds out and has her poisoned. The king curses God, and is condemned to ride on a ghostly hunt throughout all eternity, until the arrival of dawn signals an end to the nightly horror. This performance--which happily has been reissued at bargain price--has been the choice since the day it was released, both for interpretation and for recording. Magnificent doesn't begin to describe it. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

A fantastic bargain in the Schoenberg catalog.......2006-03-21

Ozawa has had a checkered career on records (as in life), so his detractors below sound plausible. But the acclaim he won for this Gurre-Lieder from 1979 (in gorgeous, state-of-the-art sound) is well deserved. Ozawa is more exciting and involved than Sinopoli, Boulez, and Chailly, whose excellent versions are trumped here, and the recent Berlin performance on EMI under Rattle seems pale by comparison. This is great musicmaking of the kind Ozawa rarely achieved, and his soloists are commadning, particularly Norman as a Tove of true Isolde stature, her voice as magnificent as we have ever heard it. But James McCracken and Tatiana Troyanos are scarcely far behind. (Indeed, the three of them should have recorded Tristan.) They outsing the competiiton with the sole exception of Ben Heppner on Levine's live recording from Munich (Oehms).

Yet one shouldn't overlook the two companion pieces, the Chamber Sym. #1 and #2, performed with equal vibrancy by Eliahu Imbal and his Frankfurt orchestra in 1974. The first work is given in its lush re-orchestration for full symphony and comes across as a lost Struass tone poem. Anyone phobic about Schoenberg's later idiom will be delighted. Only the Chamber Sym. #2 represents the composer's atonal maturity, and although it is not easy listening, I am grateful to own it as part of this fantastic two-fer, one not to be missed. Why, oh wh, did Ozawa lapse from this inpsired level and pull the BSO down with him?

Seiji Ozawa must mean "chief blunderer" in Japanese........2003-11-27

Norman, McCracken, and Troyanos are all incredible singers. The orchestra and the choir played and sang respectably, but in this work they were in serious need of some direction, and they obviously didn't get enough. With simpler music, a rotten conductor can get away with murder, but with something as large and challenging as Gurrelieder, shabby conducting leads to volume imbalances so large that several melodic lines get drowned out and tempos so brisk that the handful of players that can still be heard end up skipping and slurring many notes.

To prove my point, listen to one of the more complex numbers on this one like "Gegrusst, o Konig" or "Seht die Sonne" and then listen to the same section conducted by a real conductor like Boulez, Chailly, Sinopoli, or Rattle. I guarantee you it will be a night and day difference. Luckily, Ozawa managed to keep it somewhat together while Norman and McCracken were singing, so it's not a total loss.

almost ideal.......2003-07-30

This is one lush, romantic score. Its like 'Tannhauser meets Salome.' Having both Troyanos and Norman in fabulous voice would seal the deal regardless of the rest of the cast. But with James McCracken you have the perfect tenor for this music. The equally underappreciated Jess Thomas made a good recording of this role as well. But McCracken was special. No one sounded like him. And his recording opportunities were shamefully rare.
This music demands a tenor with power and conviction. McCracken had those qualities like no one before or since. The only problem with this recording is that the voices are too far forward. Given more reverb this Gurrelieder would have been perfect.

This is an excellent recording.......2002-06-30

Schoenberg's Gurrelieder is a hard work written for a grand ensemble. But this recording is really excellent. Especially the voice of Jesse Norman, Tatiana Troyanos's marvellous performance on Lied der Waldtaube, three men's choir in the third section and the eight voice choir's performance in the final section is really worth to listen again and again. And also we can't pass by Eliahu Inbal's Chamber Symphonies recording, it is also great.

Ozawa isn't truly the man for this masterpiece.......2001-12-12

There is no question about Arnold Schoenberg's gigantic oratorio "Gurrelieder"'s greatness as being on the very same rarefied plane as any of mankind's other masterpieces in music (e.g., the Beethoven 9th Symphony, the High Mass in b {natural} by JS Bach, the Wagner opera "Tristan und Isolde", or Stravínskiy's ballet "Vjesná Svjashchjénnaja" ("Le Sacre du Printemps"), and most probably no single conductor's reading of this super-score will totally satisfy everybody. Certainly the ingredients for a superb performance are present: a truly great orchestra, worthy choirs for the 3rd part, wonderful soloists. The one thing that is however missing in this recording is a truly involved conductor who can truly bare his heart on his sleeve like a Kegel or a Sinopoli - or a Stokowski. So many, many of the really great moments of passion, tenderness, pain, and outrage (e.g., the interlude prior to the Song of the Wood-Dove) go for nothing in the hands of Seiji Ozawa - they're just brushed aside and not truly developed in terms of the eloquence and lushness this huge piece calls for. Whatever Ozawa's greatness in Berlioz or whoever else, he almost feels mechanical in his approach - which is not what Schoenberg, any more than Mahler, Wagner, Chaykóvskiy, Puccini, or Richard Strauss, would have had in mind. No, thanks to him (and it was his interpretation through which I first came to know this chef-d'oeuvre), I can't really recommend this recording almost at all.

Track Listings:

Track Listings

Midnight at the Nairobi Room

Live in '95 [Live]

Welcome to the Nightmare: An All-Star Salute to Alice Cooper

She Was Never Her [CD-single]

Sing Irving Berlin [Import]

Mussorgsky/Stravinsky

Some Things I Know

On My Way Shoutin Again [Import] [Original recording remastered]

One Bedroom

Rich Kid Blues [Import]

PopArt [Enhanced] [Limited Edition] [Original recording remastered] [Import]

Inspite of It All

Boppin' and Burnin'

1. I. Teil - Orchestervorspiel
2. I. Teil - Nun DÄMpft Die DÄMmrung Jeden Ton
3. I. Teil - O, Wenn Des Mondes Strahlen Milde Gleiten
4. I. Teil - Roß! Mein Roß! Was Schleichst Du So TrÄG!
5. I. Teil - Sterne Jubeln, Das Meer, Es Leuchtet
6. I. Teil - So Tanzen Die Engel Vor Gottes Thron Nicht
7. I. Teil - Nun Sag Ich Dir Zum Ersten Mal
8. I. Teil - Es Ist Mitternachtszeit
9. I. Teil - Du Sendest Mir Einen Liebesblick
10. I. Teil - Du Wunderliche Tove!
11. I. Teil - Orchesterzwischenspiel
12. I. Teil - Tauben Von Gurre!
13. Ii. Teil - Herrgott, WeißT Du, Was Du Tatest
14. Iii. Teil - Erwacht, KÖNig Waldemars Mannen Wert!
15. Iii. Teil - Deckel Des Sarges Klappert Und Klappt
16. Iii. Teil - GegrÜßT, O KÖNig, An Gurresees Strand!
17. Iii. Teil - Mit Toves Stimme FlÜStert Der Wald
18. Iii. Teil - Ein Seltsamer Vogel Ist So'n Aal
19. Iii. Teil - Du Strenger Richter Droben
20. Iii. Teil - Der Hahn Erhebt Den Kopf Zur Kraht