These well-filled discs represent a good cross-section of Alban
Berg’s works from the early Sieben frühe Lieder and Piano
Sonata to two of his greatest works written near the end of
his rather short life, the Lulu-Suite and the Violin Concerto.
The set is also a real bargain in that all of the performances
and recordings are first rate, and the CDs are at budget price.
The first disc starts with what is Berg’s most often performed
and best-loved work, the Violin Concerto. Although based on
Schoenberg’s tone row series of twelve notes, it contains many
tonal elements, not least of which is the use of Bach’s chorale
“Es ist genug” in the second movement. Franz Peter Zimmermann’s
performance is overall the speediest of the five in my collection,
though it nowhere sounds rushed. Where Daniel Hope takes over
twelve minutes for the first movement and seventeen for the
second, Zimmermann’s comes in at eleven and fourteen and a half,
respectively. Zimmermann gives an eloquent account of the work
and the violin is balanced very well with the orchestra, though
I still prefer Hope by a small margin. The orchestra’s role
is nearly as important as that of the soloist, and Gelmetti
and the Stuttgart orchestra provide superb support. The recording
is so clear that you can easily hear all of the orchestral solos
and yet the violin is forward enough to avoid being covered
by the at times dense orchestration.
Next on the disc is the suite Berg made from his unfinished
opera Lulu. Rattle and the CBSO capture the spirit of
the music very well. They play with warmth, but do not romanticize
the music. They also bring out the humor with the hurdy-gurdy
imitation in the Variations movement. Arleen Augér’s solos blend
in with the orchestra rather than standing out as one might
expect. Yet, the purity of her tone is a definite asset. The
first disc concludes with what in my opinion is one of the composer’s
toughest nuts to crack, the Three Orchestral Pieces. Metzmacher
and the Bambergers do as fine a job with them as I have heard.
They are certainly better played and recorded than the version
by Colin Davis and the Bavarian Radio Symphony on a Philips
CD that accompanies Gidon Kremer’s highly regarded performance
of the Violin Concerto.
The second disc consists of solo and chamber works. Peter Donohoe
gives a fine account of the highly chromatic Piano Sonata. His
is a less dramatic performance than Mitsuko Uchida’s on the
Philips recording that includes her terrific performance of
the Schoenberg Piano Concerto. Yet Donohoe is powerful enough
when the music calls for power. The eponymous Alban Berg Quartett
provides definitive accounts of the two string pieces. I reviewed
their version of the Quartet earlier when it appeared in a compilation
of twentieth-century string quartets also on EMI. The Lyric
Suite also leaves nothing to be desired. I prefer this performance
to that of the Juilliard Quartet on a Sony disc containing unidiomatic
accounts of the Janáček quartets. The Alban Berg Quartett
is slightly faster and lighter with the work and has a more
natural flow. The disc ends with the Seven Early Songs, which
are performed in the composer’s later revision accompanied by
a chamber orchestra. I had not heard Sine Bundgaard before.
She has a lovely voice and captures the romance and nature imagery
of the songs very well, and Pintscher and the Danish Radio Sinfonietta
provide excellent accompaniment.
Since there is not a single dud among the performances, I can
heartily recommend these discs for someone coming to Berg for
the first time and also to the seasoned collector. The reduced
price is a further enhancement, but it’s a pity that no texts
for the songs or for the vocal parts of the Lulu-Suite were
included. The notes themselves, while rather skimpy, are well
written and provide some background to the works.
Leslie Wright
Artist and Recording details
Violin Concerto
Franz Peter Zimmermann (violin); Radio Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart/Gianluigi Gelmetti
rec. 3-5 September 1990, Villa Berg (SDR Studio), Stuttgart,
Germany
Lulu-Suite
Arleen Augér (soprano); City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle
rec. 19-21 December 1987, Butterworth Hall, Warwick Arts Centre,
Birmingham, England
Three Orchestral Pieces
Bamberger Symphoniker/Ingo Metzmacher
rec. 12-13, 15 May and 22-23 September 1995, Sinfonie an der
Regnitz, Bamberg, Germany
Piano Sonata
Peter Donohoe (piano)
rec. 10, 12 February and 17, 21 May 1989, No. 1 Studio, Abbey
Road, London, England
String Quartet; Lyric Suite
Alban Berg Quartett (Günter Pichler, Gerhard Schulz (violin); Thomas Kakuska (viola); Valentin Erben (cello))
rec. December 1991 (Quartet) and June 1992 (Lyric Suite), Evangelische
Kirche, Seon, Switzerland
Seven Early Songs
Sine Bundgaard (soprano); Danish Radio Sinfonietta/Matthias Pintscher
rec. 20-21 September 2004, Danish Radio Concert Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark
Various artists and recording venues - see complete listing at end
of review 
