Search - Alban Berg, Sir Colin Davis, Bayerischen Rundfunks :: Violin Concerto / 3 Orchestra Pieces

Beautifully played and recorded - pity that more wasn't made

Alexander Z. Damyanovich | Flesherton, Ontario, Canada | 03/08/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If it weren't for the playing and recording of these pieces being so outstanding, I would have downgraded this CD by a star or two.



That said, Colin Davis manages to bring out the fullest nostalgia, grief and love that lies so thinly below the surface of ostensible cacophony that atonalism on first hearing often comes across as being; and in this he's particularly done proud with the collaboration of Gidon Kremer. They jointly expose and manifest to the fullest possible extent the vision Alban von Berg saw in both pieces - and in the process proving that Berg is more accessible than one would think. Of course, it helps that he could combine some traditional tonality with Schoenberg's serialist technique such that one almost could readily recognise a home-key of B-flat major overall and G-minor for the 1st section; while in the free-atonal world of the Three Orchestral pieces of Opus 6 (more grating in some ways than the Violin Concerto in spite of the latter's serialism!), one nevertheless senses actual motifs that could nearly cross the border into actual melodies! [This interpretation of Opus 6 also is a nice corrective for those who think Herbert von Karajan might be too free and/or personal with it (I personally disagree vehemently with them! - it's superb, even greater than this nevertheless-fine reading!).]



[Particularly powerful of the Three Orchestral Pieces is the 3rd - what a vision of war and suffering!]



I hope that Philips will re-release this recording AND add something more on top thereof simultaneously (how about a recording of the same composer's "Altenberg-Lieder" of Opus 4?) so as to give more value to the CD's price. Beautiful recording as well (though in the concerto I personally wish that the soloist wasn't made quite so excessively prominent): Colin Davis also knows to handle balances (so critically important in this kind of writing)."