Berg's 7 Early Songs

[Thropplenoggin]

I caught this on the radio on today's Afternoon on 3: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b020vq35

New works for me. I'm currently listening to Abbado/VPO/von Otter in these songs.

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, they're... quite good, really, but not a patch on the Altenberg Lieder Op.4 - a song-cycle really, more concise, more intense, the compositional technique greatly advanced over those early efforts. Go seek those out, it should be a memorable encounter. Makes me want to play them now.

(Banse/Abbado/VPO is fine, but there's a terrific alternative on Arte Nova with Gielen/SWR/Vlatka Orsanic)

[Beef Oven]

Yes, they're... quite good, really, but not a patch on the Altenberg Lieder Op.4 - a song-cycle really, more concise, more intense, the compositional technique greatly advanced over those early efforts. Go seek those out, it should be a memorable encounter. Makes me want to play them now.

(Banse/Abbado/VPO is fine, but there's a terrific alternative on Arte Nova with Gielen/SWR/Vlatka Orsanic)

Definitely agree Jayne

I have the Sinopoli, Dresden, Alessandra Marc and the already mentioned Abbado/Price.

[pastoralguy]

I thought Ruby Hughes was excellent (as always!)

We have a shoe shop in Edinburgh called. 'Ooh, Ruby Shoes'. I wish I could bring them together so we could have Ruby Hughes at Ruby Shoes...

Just a thought

[Thropplenoggin]

I thought Ruby Hughes was excellent (as always!)

We have a shoe shop in Edinburgh called. 'Ooh, Ruby Shoes'. I wish I could bring them together so we could have Ruby Hughes at Ruby Shoes...

Just a thought

Thanks for commenting on the performance in question, pg. I was hoping someone would, which was why I posted it under 'Performace' not 'CD Review'. I expect your dream will be realised on a ruby Tuesday.

[amateur51]

I thought Ruby Hughes was excellent (as always!)

We have a shoe shop in Edinburgh called. 'Ooh, Ruby Shoes'. I wish I could bring them together so we could have Ruby Hughes at Ruby Shoes...

Just a thought

An outstanding thought, pastoralguy

[pastoralguy]

Thanks for commenting on the performance in question, pg. I was hoping someone would, which was why I posted it under 'Performace' not 'CD Review'. I expect your dream will be realised on a ruby Tuesday.

I was driving my wife to B&Q At the time and I got to thinking how a singer would go about learning all those unpredictable intervals. I had a theory that one could divorce the intervals from the words and rhythm and simply learn the 'tune' as a series of crotchets. Once that had been assimilated then the rhythm could be added with the words coming last!

I remember trying something similar many years ago with a very odd passage in the first movt. of Scriabin's second symphony where I never seemed to end on the correct note.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks for highlighting this performance, Thropple - it was very well performed by the orchestra and soloist: "lighter" than the Abbado/von Otter recordings (which are loin-meltingly gorgeous) but none-the-worse for that. Anyone who doesn't know these songs, but who loves Mahler, Wolf and/or the First Part of Gurrelieder should find them ravishing. (They may well appeal to aficionadi of Duparc or Chausson, also). Well programmed, too - coming after Britten's Simple Symphony; another work based on Music written before their composer became their composer!

Yes, the Altenberglieder are better compositions, but these are lovely and the performance thoroughly enjoyable. I wonder, if the singer ever attempts any "crossover" material? If so, we might hear Ruby Hughes in her Ruby Shoes singing Ruby Tuesday.



Gosh! I have a coat just like that one.


Oh.




I see ...

[Thropplenoggin]

Thanks for highlighting this performance, Thropple - it was very well performed by the orchestra and soloist: "lighter" than the Abbado/von Otter recordings (which are loin-meltingly gorgeous) but none-the-worse for that. Anyone who doesn't know these songs, but who loves Mahler, Wolf and/or the First Part of Gurrelieder should find them ravishing. (They may well appeal to aficionadi of Duparc or Chausson, also). Well programmed, too - coming after Britten's Simple Symphony; another work based on Music written before their composer became their composer!

Yes, the Altenberglieder are better compositions, but these are lovely and the performance thoroughly enjoyable. I wonder, if the singer ever attempts any "crossover" material? If so, we might hear Ruby Hughes in her Ruby Shoes singing Ruby Tuesday.



Gosh! I have a coat just like that one.


Oh.




I see ...

A nice summation, especially for those what don't know nuffink (well, not much) about Berg. I am edging my way into the 2nd Viennese School and really enjoying the connection between Late Romanticism and Early Modernism in Berg, Mahler, Schoenberg. That's what struck me about these songs, which were all too swiftly swatted away like an irritating gnat by JLW in favour of the later, 'better' works. These songs begin to straddle the yawning abyss between what was and what will come - one hears cabaret in them. Well, I do. A bit. And not in a bad way, either.

[Sir Velo]

That's what struck me about these songs, which were all too swiftly swatted away like an irritating gnat by JLW in favour of the later, 'better' works.

I'm surprised by that reaction. There are wonderfully seductive half lights to these songs with their adumbration of the world of Erwartung and echoes of Pelleas and Wesendonck with their youthful hothouse charm.

Currently enjoying Norman's stunning vocal acrobatics and plush warmth, c/w Berg's miscellaneous, exuberant Jugendlieder, his peches de sa jeunesse.