Alban Berg: Best of the Best

Berg (1885-1935) put a human face on the 12-tone system of composition pioneered by his teacher, Arnold Schönberg. The appeal of Berg's music lies in its balance of formal rigor and emotional richness, in the fact that it is both tightly constructed and expressive, both "cerebral" and emotional. Even the most violent and shocking pages Berg wrote have a familiar, Romantic ring to them. Here are his essential recordings.

	Berg: Wozzeck / Abbado, Grundheber, Behrens, Langridge et al
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Amazon.com essential recording This 1988 Vienna State Opera production of Wozzeck is, to my ears, vastly superior to the 1979 performance by Christoph von Dohnányi with the same orchestra. The entire emotional and dynamic range of the music is here, projected in striking relief. The anxieties of the tale are unflinchingly portrayed, but so, too, are the many moments of tenderness and rapturous beauty. The cast--Franz Grundheber plays the title role and Hildegard Behrens portrays Marie--are skilled dramatists as well as...Read more
	Berg: Violin Concerto; Rihm: Time Chant / Mutter, Levine
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Amazon.com essential recording Berg's Violin Concerto (1935) is considered by many the most accessible and emotionally engaging piece of music in the atonal idiom. His last completed work, the concerto was written as a memorial "to an angel" upon the premature death of Alma Mahler's daughter Manon Gropius. But as with all of Berg's oeuvre, an autobiography of the composer's inner life is also thoroughly woven into the score. From the deeply reflective nuances of its quiet opening, Anne-Sophie Mutter takes the listener into...Read more
	Pierre Boulez Edition - Berg: Chamber Concerto, etc
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Amazon.com essential recording No doctrinaire theorist, Berg composed communicative, emotional music without compromising his technical sophistication and atonal allegiances. The Chamber Concerto has its knotty moments, but also considerable charms. Barenboim's big-hearted, romantic pianism plays off Gawriloff's tart violin, the piquant winds, and Boulez's controlled leadership. The Three Pieces is as close as Berg ever came to writing a symphony; its mix of powerful orchestral outbursts and elegant section writing are...Read more