Search - Arnold Schoenberg, Riccardo Chailly, Rso Berlin :: Schoenberg: Gurrelieder

Can't go wrong

M. A COMBRINK | Cape Town, South Africa | 07/08/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Chailly does wonderful things with the orchestra, Fassbaender is fantastic, heartwrenching. Jerusalem is the most musical heldentenor you're likely to hear. Dunn is not quite the Jessye Norman that Ozawa has but she is sweet and pure toned. If you like Mahler and some Berg, don't skip this work. There's a lot of Hooha about Rattle's new version, but I have heard it and it has left me quite cold. Try this. I shy away from 5 stars simply becuase the Ozawa version is ALSO wonderful."

I'll give it five stars

Brian M. Kulesza | Joliet, Illinois | 08/07/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I purchased this recording of Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder several years ago, and in my opinion it is still the best on the market.I agree with the other reviewer that the Ozawa recording (which I also own)has many merits, but if I were forced to choose between the Ozawa and the Chailly recordings, the Chailly recording has the edge.This is one of those recordings for which I cannot resist offering nearly obsequious praise.Haunting E-flat evocations at the beginning, the overwhelming punch of the orchestration, the RSO Berlin's entire performance, and of course the singing. The merits of this glorious recording go on and on and on.I would urge newcomers (as well as longtime devotees) of this work to purchase this recording ASAP. You never know when even GREAT recordings such as this will go out of print or be scarce (e.g. The Solti recording of Richard Strauss' opera "Die Frau Ohne Schatten" which I purchased in 1992)."

Crisp production

Matthew Fields | Ann Arbor, Michigan | 12/30/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The performance on this recording is right on the money. The production--as in so many Chailly recordings--is so transparent that even in the densest passages, all the tiny details are crisp and clean, sparklingly clear. Some folks may find this distracting--the sort of folks who dislike the amazingly detailed balances in Leonard Bernstein's recordings of La Mer, perhaps. But the vast romantic dramatic curves are all there, too, and the casting is wonderful. After hearing many other recordings of this work, here at last I find one which reveals details of the score which I'd seen on the page but not heard clearly before. Considering that this work has been recorded by many of the heaviest hitters in romantic music (e.g. Boulez), it's pretty amazing that something more can be drawn from it.Of course, the work itself is a delight, with its leitmotif construction, through-composition breaking into ariosos that extend Wagner's ideas in new directions, and inclusion even of Sprechstimme--that burlesque-inspired antecedent to rap and Rex Harrison's "singing" and other forms of non-sung poetic recitation to music. Unlike the macabre riffs on vulgarity in Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, the recitation in the penultimate scene of Gurrelieder aspires to and attains a certain nobility akin to performances of Shakespeare with incidental music. The heavy iron chains and triple men's choir of the ghost scenes, the soloists, the concluding chorus--all the elements of this great work are in place and compelling in this recording."