Will The Real Wozzeck Please Step Forward

[jayne lee wilson]

Other way round with me. First with a DG disc of Aura, Biogramma & Quadrivium, NDR Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Sinopoli. I still spin that disc regularly all these years later. I first discovered Maderna's conducting skills on a BBC Legends recording of Mahler 9 with the BBCSO. An excellent performance that reveals different things each time I listen to it.

Yes.... that long-ago Sinopoli gained the music a certain profile, but it is distinctly dull alongside Tamayo's stunning efforts, doing Quadrivium no favours since the orchestra sounds only just on top of it all. Besides Neos, Quadrivium is also far better handled (much greater panache) on the Naxos release....

But the best of Maderna - the remarkable visionary creations like Grande Aulodia, Violin Concerto, the early Composizione 1/2, Improvvisazione 1/2 is only covered on Neos with a few scattered Stradivarius-label highlights elsewhere.... not to mention the three oboe concertos...
Aura and Biogramma can be exciting, but feel a little rigid, and don't show this composer at his fluid, singingly improvisational best. Madernian melody is an amazing phenomenon.

It is still very little known music, true hidden treasure of the 20thC....

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes.... that long-ago Sinopoli gained the music a certain profile, but it is distinctly dull alongside Tamayo's stunning efforts, doing Quadrivium no favours since the orchestra sounds only just on top of it all. Besides Neos, Quadrivium is also far better handled (much greater panache) on the Naxos release....

But the best of Maderna - the remarkable visionary creations like Grande Aulodia, Violin Concerto, the early Composizione 1/2, Improvvisazione 1/2 is only covered on Neos with a few scattered Stradivarius-label highlights elsewhere....

It is still very little known music, true hidden treasure of the 20thC....

It's funny that of that great Nono-Berio-Maderna Milan-based triumvirate, it was Maderna who was considered by some the most advanced and uncompromising in his abstraction and all-embracing constructivist aims back in the 1950s; yet I have found little difficulty in appreciating his music.

[Felix the Gnat]

Yes.... that long-ago Sinopoli gained the music a certain profile, but it is distinctly dull alongside Tamayo's stunning efforts, doing Quadrivium no favours since the orchestra sounds only just on top of it all. Besides Neos, Quadrivium is also far better handled (much greater panache) on the Naxos release....

But the best of Maderna - the remarkable visionary creations like Grande Aulodia, Violin Concerto, the early Composizione 1/2, Improvvisazione 1/2 is only covered on Neos with a few scattered Stradivarius-label highlights elsewhere.... not to mention the three oboe concertos...
Aura and Biogramma can be exciting, but feel a little rigid, and don't show this composer at his fluid, singingly improvisational best. Madernian melody is an amazing phenomenon.

It is still very little known music, true hidden treasure of the 20thC....

Yes, where would we be without Arturo Tamayo? A life-saver for fans of Xenakis, Petrassi, Donatoni, Maderna et al. I have quite a few of those NEOS CDs.

I never find Sinopoli's disc dull by comparison. I guess we're all different.

[Constantbee]

Recently watched the 1987 Vienna State Opera Abbado version on DVD, which I enjoyed, but then I had nothing to compare it with, at least not within conscious memory. The original performance was praised for its lyricism, and Hildegard Behrens was certainly memorable as Marie. The 1970 DVD does sound attractive, but it’s probably difficult to source, and the recording quality might get irritating after a while.