So I wanna pick up something - have some schoenberg and webern but never got round it Berg.
don't restrict it to recordings: opera on DVD is something I wanna check out as I finally got a player recently.
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 13 January 2005 22:53 (twenty-one years ago)
sorry i can't recommend a particular release, i've only seen it live a couple of times
― lemin (lemin), Friday, 14 January 2005 00:05 (twenty-one years ago)
Howard Goodall thinks he's Jewish, but he isn't... Berg that is, not Howard Goodall
― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 14 January 2005 10:21 (twenty-one years ago)
three months pass...
he's always been my favorite of the three. i appreciate his honesty--he never pursued innovation for its own sake.
the "lyric suite" is classic, of course, one of the best string quartets of the last century. check arditti, prazak, kronos--all perform it wonderfully.
a good "wozzeck" is hard to come by. either the singers are subpar, or the orchestra sounds tame. dohnanyi's version is the only one i find satisfactory, overall. and if it piques your interest, boulez's recording of "lulu" (with the orchestrated final act), while it has its flaws, is still fascinating.
the violin concerto is also classic. gidon kremer with sir colin davis (coupled with the three orchestral pieces), or anne-sophie mutter with james levine (coupled with wolfgang rihm's "time chant") are my benchmarks.
the other works are less essential, but both the string quartet and the piano sonata are worth a shot. save for juvenilia, every berg work is worth hearing if only because he was such a perfectionist. and in hindsight, his adherence to both tonal and atonal models seems ahead of its time.
― you will be shot (you will be shot), Saturday, 16 April 2005 19:03 (twenty years ago)
thanks, I've still not investigated him but I've been reading adorno's 'quaasi una fantasia' collection. there's an essay abt him on there which I'll be reading shortly.
I saw a 'wozzeck' conducted by abbado last week. have you heard that?
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 16 April 2005 19:53 (twenty years ago)
it's not a bad choice, but the singers often miss pitches and such.
if you can get it cheaply, why not? but dohnanyi's and even bohm's versions are vastly superior.
― you will be shot (you will be shot), Saturday, 16 April 2005 20:22 (twenty years ago)