The Berg works collected here certainly are essential but the selected performances are not, nor do they even represent the best in the vast Universal Classics archives. Perhaps because of branding and complex licensing issues, this Philips Duo disc (which includes previously issued recordings from Decca and Mercury) could not include more polished versions of Berg’s Lyric Suite for string orchestra (Karajan’s, for one, on DG) or more meticulous and sonically superior readings of Three Orchestral Pieces (Abbado’s Vienna Philharmonic account, also on DG, comes to mind).
Gidon Kremer’s recording of the Violin Concerto under Colin Davis is the showcase of this re-issue. Always an expressive and captivating musician, Kremer invests the work with wide-ranging emotion; the soft delicate opening, taken at a leisurely tempo, effectively contrasts in temper with the more nervous Allegretto section. Prodded by Davis’ marked urgency in the second-movement Pesante section, Kremer pushes his instrument to the max in a way that might seem too gritty–and we hear some strain in the terribly difficult triple- (and quadruple) stops in the cadenza-like duet with the solo viola. Some critics have quibbled in the past about the balances of this recording, which obscure various orchestral details and place the violin quite forward in the soundstage, but these concerns are minor overall. The following selection (also on the original release) is Davis’ traversal of the Three Orchestral Pieces, a driven performance rendered somewhat superfluous by bloated sound that robs the piece of most of its rhythmic complexity and carefully wrought thematic structure.
Vladimir Ashkenazy weighs in with two undistinguished entries–three pieces from Lyric Suite and the Altenberg Lieder. The former, while ardent, suffers both from imprecise playing in the monstrously difficult Allegro misterioso and an ugly, grating string sonority, an unfortunate remnant of its 1994 appearance on Decca. The odd Altenberg lieder features strongly characterized but often unattractive singing from mezzo Brigitte Balleys.
Recording in 1961, Antal Dorati’s Lulu Suite last appeared on Mercury with works by Schoenberg and Webern and, while the sharply-articulated reading withstands the test of time, it lacks the sensuousness of later readings (notably Levine’s on Sony). Helga Pilarczyk’s rather unalluring vocalizing is better-suited to Marie in the Wozzeck excerpts than as Lulu in the big third-movement solo. A fine “live” reading of the Piano Sonata by Alfred Brendel fills out this ample disc, which, like other compilation discs, is clearly aimed at the neophyte rather than the veteran collector.
