Berg: 3 Wozzeck-Fragments

Bartók showed little interest in opera, until the libretto for Bluebeard’s Castle by Béla Balázs arrived on his desk. Something about the character of Bluebeard, and his intense loneliness, appealed to him. When Bartók completed the work in 1911 it was banned by the Hungarian Commision of Fine Arts. It wasn’t until 1918 that the Italian conductor Egisto Tango disinterred the score and realised its worth. The work was then performed in Berlin in German, and in Hungarian in Florence. Kodály described the work as the ‘Hungarian Pelléas’, and the dual between Romantic and impressionistic influences certainly links the two works.

Berg’s Wozzeck was premiered in 1925 conducted by Erich Kleiber, then banned by the Nazis as decadent in the 1930s. Since then though it has become recognised as one of the masterpieces of 20th-century opera. Structured as a normal opera, but without arias and recitatives, the second act is in effect a fourmovement symphony. The opera also has significant symphonic interludes. Berg made a concert suite from material from the opera in 1924, and it met with instant success.

This set shows the so-called bogey-men of the Second Viennese School, from their hyper Romantic height, through Expressionism and onto the more entertaining aspects of Serialism, as entertainers of a great order. The Nineteenth-Century heritage of Schubert, Brahms and Wagner are never far from Schoenberg, Berg and Webern in these 8 CDs, which concentrate on the earlier, more approachable (and often finest) products of three distinct composers, rather than any school. The performers reflect the composers' Romantic leanings here; Sinopoli bringing in artists at the height of their early careers: Deborah Voigt, Alessandra Marc and Juliane Banse.

The ever-approachable Berg is seen at his kindest and Webern, a figure who looked as far back as he did forward is as finely tuned in Im Sommerwind as in the Op.21 Symphony – a simply and fascinating journey. Schoenberg is in full splendour, too. Sounding more like Mahler's heir than a prophet of total change.

“In his highly compelling live recording, Sinopoli conducts a most sensuous reading of Gurrelieder, bringing out all it’s romantic voluptuousness… anyone who has ever thought of Schoenberg as cold should certainly hear this, magnetic from first to last…" Penguin Guide ***

“It would be hard to imagine more romantic readings of Berg’s principal orchestral works than those under Giuseppe Sinopoli. The atonal arguments of Berg have never been presented more sinuously, cocooning the ear, helped by sumptuous playing and recording” Penguin Guide ***

"The past 40 seasons has gone by like a flash and I wish I could do it all over again, alas not much time remains but I can assure all my colleagues of the orchestra and my enduring Israeli public that I shall give it my best shot until I am 120!! - Weh ist mir!!” Zubin Mehta

The Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is a transcription in sound of the concert-giving history of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, based upon radio recordings from the archives of Dutch Radio and Radio Netherlands World Service. Six decades of the 20th century are put under the spotlight in six boxes, each containing 14 CDs. We have chosen not only legendary performances under chief conductors of the KCO but also concerts led by countless guest conductors of both greater and lesser renown. Famous soloists make their debuts with the orchestra alongside world premieres of works that have since become classics of the repertoire. This fifth volume of the Anthology features the radio recordings made by the orchestra in the 1980s, presenting an overview on 14 CDs of the orchestra's artistic development under various conductors during that period.