Search - Mitsuko Uchida, Christian Tetzlaff :: Mozart: Gran Partita & Berg: Kammerkonzert

A magnificent combination

Mr. Matthew J. King | 12/01/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Previous reviewers have been unnecessarily harsh about this remarkable new release. Part of the appeal here is the prospect of hearing Pierre Boulez in his eighties (but conducting with more vigour than most 20 year olds) working with a group of truly first class musicians.



The result is a magnificent combination of Mozart and Berg. As one would expect, these are beautiful but unsentimental performances, exquisitely balanced, full of detail, with plently of rhythmic vigour, The tempi in Mozart's glorious Gran Partita are on the quick side but not exceptionally so. What is most impressive is the sense of structure - Mozart's perfect forms come across with great clarity: the famous Adagio travels its sublime arc in one effortless sweep; the variations are also a model of lucidity and charm; the finale, which can sometimes sound a bit stiff, dances along with panache. In general, the marvellous richness of Mozart's score (with its wonderful basset horns) may sounds less romantic than in many performances, but it communicates with freshness and urgency. If you want a recording to listen to in your slippers with a glass of sherry this may not be the one - Boulez is not a slippers and sherry kind of octogenarian.



The pairing with Alban Berg is imaginative and exciting. Berg is certainly the most Mozartean of the Second Viennese School - like Mozart, he had a genius for writing opera and like the older composer, his music is as playful as it is lyrical. The Chamber Concerto is an intricate work in which Berg plays some of the most complicated structural games imaginable. It is worth pointing out that relatively few conductors dare to tackle the piece because it's textural layers and the density of its counterpoint looks so baffling in the score. Few works are more challenging to play or to listen to but Boulez, Uchida and Tetzlaff, along with members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, play the work with enviable ease, communicating its extraordinary emotional range from post-Mahlerian nostalgia to expressionistic nightmare to an almost Post-Modernist sense wit and irony. This is an exceptional disc of two Viennese masterpieces, intelligently coupled together."

Boulez takes a mostly genial view of both works, with enjoya

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 12/10/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The 'Gran Partita' Serenade K. 361 is the most recorded of Mozart's three great wind serenades, and it flourishes best under a conductor -- with so many movements, one longs for a point of view and for the kind of contrast that a great conductor provides (Furtwangler, Klemperer, and Stokowski all made notable recorings). Boulez takes a streamlined, frankly unsentimental view, an approach aided by the fairly thin, piquant Parisian woodwinds of his Ensemble Intercontemporain. More to the point, he varies the mood wthin each movement, so we don't get a uniformly lush, burgeoning sound, which is what wind groups always resort to, since each soloist wants to shine on his own.



True, the opening movement scants Mozart's richness and depth -- it feels a bit impatient -- and the finale breaks all speed records, but the whole is engaging and vivacious. A Gran Partita this light on its feet can't help but be welcome, unless you expect Viennese Gemutlichkeit, which isn't much in evidence. The players are all good, and so is the recorded sound, even if a bit flimsy on the bottom end.



For many lovers of Mozart the Berg Chamber Concerto will be a bitter pill, and there's no doubt that it poses daunting challenges if you try to follow its harmonic logic analytically. It would take super-ears to keep up. But if you tune in creatively, listening for passing moments of color and mood, this work has a wealth of delightful touches. Boulez's approach isn't jagged or angular, either -- he seems as genial as in the Mozart -- which is another plus. Uchida and Tetzlaff add star power (particularly her), so there's a sparkle in the playing that renders the work much less dry, if one is tempted to think of abstract 12-tone music that way.



In short, the Berg can be turned into an enjoyable experience if you let it, and the Mozart is bottled sunlight. Highly recommended.







"

The Berg piece is a winner, but Boulez has already recorded

Christopher Culver | 05/25/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is a strange disc. Decca has brought together the Gran Partita of Mozart and the Chamber Concerto of Berg because their instrumentation matches, even if their listening demographics generally don't. The disc might hold some attraction, because very rarely does one get to hear Pierre Boulez conduct Mozart. His extremely detailed approach is honest to the score, trimming away the excess that became attached to Mozart during Romantic era, but it also might reveal to listeners of a more modern persuasion just what dull note-spinning Mozart can be. Yes, the Ensemble Intercontemporain pulls off a flawless performance, but for a group consisting of hyper-virtuosos this Classical piece must seem like a walk in the park.



Berg's three-movement "Chamber Concerto" for violin, piano and 13 wind instruments was written between 1923 and 1925 and shows a mastery of the 12-tone method. The first movement begins with a brief little motto incorporating the names of his friends Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and then proceeds through a series of variations. For the most part, this sounds like an especially zany Mahler, and Berg's Viennese heritage is especially evident in the langsamer Walztempo. The second movement is an Adagio, much more tranquil than the first both in its slower tempo and its reduced scoring as the piano mainly sits out. The last movement is a round that subjects a succession of different melodies to the same rhythms.



The Berg Chamber Concerto is a seminal work of 20th century music, and in general it's great fun. However, Boulez has already recorded it twice before, with better pairings. A mid-price Sony Classical disc reissues the Chamber Concerto with two other pieces by Berg, while a Deutsche Grammophon release pairs it with two fine Stravinsky works. I would suggest going for the DG disc, as it is a digital recording made at IRCAM with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, just like this Decca disc here, but the Stravinsky pieces are more likely to appeal to fans of modernism than the Mozart here.



The liner notes includes an interview with Boulez, Uchida and Tetzlaff on the Chamber Concerto, though the Mozart gets no explication at all."