Berg - Wozzeck -
You know ofWozzeck's reputation as a 20th-century masterpiece, but also of its complex,
... more
atonal musical language, so you're reluctant to invest heavily in a recording. Well, as so often before, Naxos comes to the rescue. At super-budget price, this is a vivid account of Berg's haunting masterpiece--his setting of Georg Büchner's playWoyzeck, a tale of madness, jealousy and murder. The recording collates three staged performances at the Kungliga Teatern in Stockholm, with plenty of atmosphere--yet no loss of presence as far as the voices are concerned (indeed the balance favours them). Leif Segerstam draws from the Royal Opera Orchestra a reading of commitment and clarity which relishes both the surreal and the ravishing: sample Katarina Dalayman's passionate singing in Act 1 Scene 3, for example. Her contribution as Marie is outstanding; ditto Ulrik Qvale's Doctor. As Wozzeck, Carl Johan Falkman is hardly required to caress the ear--from the outset he hu! rls himself, with all the vocal imagination one could wish, into his manic persona. Nowhere do we more gain the benefit of live performance than in the horrifying climax; the closing moments almost unbearable. --Andrew Green
Berg - Wozzeck -
You know ofWozzeck's reputation as a 20th-century masterpiece, but also of its complex,
... more
atonal musical language, so you're reluctant to invest heavily in a recording. Well, as so often before, Naxos comes to the rescue. At super-budget price, this is a vivid account of Berg's haunting masterpiece--his setting of Georg Büchner's playWoyzeck, a tale of madness, jealousy and murder. The recording collates three staged performances at the Kungliga Teatern in Stockholm, with plenty of atmosphere--yet no loss of presence as far as the voices are concerned (indeed the balance favours them). Leif Segerstam draws from the Royal Opera Orchestra a reading of commitment and clarity which relishes both the surreal and the ravishing: sample Katarina Dalayman's passionate singing in Act 1 Scene 3, for example. Her contribution as Marie is outstanding; ditto Ulrik Qvale's Doctor. As Wozzeck, Carl Johan Falkman is hardly required to caress the ear--from the outset he hu! rls himself, with all the vocal imagination one could wish, into his manic persona. Nowhere do we more gain the benefit of live performance than in the horrifying climax; the closing moments almost unbearable. --Andrew Green
Berg: Wozzeck
The bleakness of Berg's operatic masterpieceWozzeckis relatively easy to bring off: the
... more
plot, after all, tells of a man who is bullied, cuckolded and mocked by the society around him. What are harder to realise are the gallows humour and pitch-black comedy--and it's those qualities, along with the brilliant acting and edge-of-seat orchestral playing, that make this 1987 Vienna Staatsoper staging a stunning televisual operatic production.Everything works: the simple yet evocative sets translate effortlessly to the small screen, the pacing of the 15 short scenes is worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster and the singing is beautifully focussed. Baritone Franz Grundheber is vocally and dramatically outstanding as Wozzeck, cringing and shuffling around the stage in a bewildered hang-dog manner and yet never losing sight of the character's humanity. Hildegard Behrens (Marie) has rarely sounded better, and switches between Straussian lushness and spiky sluttishness with ease. The direction is also full of wonderful touches, such as Wozzeck squeezing the Captain's nose while he's shaving him (and making his voice sound like a kazoo), and the musicians of the on-stage band being fully integrated into the tavern scene. Ironic, emotionally rich, musically faultless--this one's got it all.On the DVD:the production works beautifully on DVD, and bar one or two moments in the second tavern scene (Act 3, Scene 3) the voices rarely move out of microphone range. There are subtitles in English, German, French and Spanish and four trailers for other Arthaus DVD operas, but no other special features. --Warwick Thomson
Label / Distributor: Opera in English Series / Select
Pieces in Set: 2
Running Time: 2 hours 32 minutes
Genre(s): Stage works
Stereo: Stereo
SPAR Code: DDD
EAN: 95115309421
Work 1
Work Title: Wozzeck, Op. 7
Excerpt(s): 1. ACT 3 - Orchestral Interlude 2. Wir arme Leut! 3. Dort links geht's in die Stadt 4. Das Messer? Wo ist das Messer?
Composer: Alban (Maria Johannes) Berg (1885 - 1935)
Genre: Stage works
Date Written: 1925
Conductor: Paul Daniel
Orchestra / Ensemble: Philharmonia Orchestra
Orchestra / Ensemble: Geoffrey Mitchell Choir
Main Performer: Alan Woodrow (Tenor), Andrew Shore (Baritone), Clive Bayley (Bass), Dame Josephine Barstow (Soprano), Jean Rigby (Mezzo soprano), John Graham-Hall (Tenor), Leslie John Flanagan (Baritone), Peter Bronder (Tenor), Stuart Kale (Tenor)
Opera Part(s): Alan Woodrow (Drum Major), Andrew Shore (Wozzeck), Clive Bayley (Doctor), Dame Josephine Barstow (Marie), Jean Rigby (Margret), John Graham-Hall (Idiot), Leslie John Flanagan (Apprentice I), Peter Bronder (Andres), Stuart Kale (Captain)
Advantages: Great music is always an advantage... Disadvantages: Great music don't have it
...and derided thick author.
Today, that can listen their with the clear of mind from prejudices, we have to recognize their greatness "absolute" without forgetting they open the road to so much back music.
You are enough to think about Schoenberg, the inventor of the so-called dodecafonia (new method to compose music proposed around 1915), that appreciated him and as great teacher showed him; to Berg that more times he quotes, in his writings, Mahler declaring how much it musically owed him, etc.
The Symphony that I have a preference for, but saying this I feel a hold to the stomach for the "blame" that I do to the others, it is the Seventh one and particularly the two enchanting, "strange" Nachtmusiken that they constitute the traditional slow Time and the other one of it, the "Scherzo".
Here, all plays indeed, as if it came from...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
...Most of you have probably heard of the number one hit 'Bring Me To Life', and the most recent track 'Going Under'. These two tracks are just the tip of the gothic-rock groups' gigantic ice-berg.
Amy Lee provides vocals with great emotion and feeling, and it could be said with an almost haunting and eerie epocaliptic voice. But there is no dought that the mix of sweet vocals and heavy a instrumental backdrop together provide ever lasting tracks that are embeded within your mind after the first listening.
I personally have listened to this album almost everyday since i brought it, and i never get bored of it. All my friends would agree on this when i say that Evanescence are great, and this album, hopefully, will be one of many more.
Each track on the album has a similar tone, but yet each track is very different.
Track 1...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
This product has not yet been reviewed. 
17.11.2007
04.09.2001
05.09.2003
