Luciano Berio (1925-2003)

Started by bhodges, January 30, 2008, 12:18:50 PM

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MishaK

Great! BTW, your signature quote cracks me up.  ;D

bhodges

Quote from: O Mensch on February 01, 2008, 12:44:54 PM
Great! BTW, your signature quote cracks me up.  ;D

Thanks!  Yeah, I pretty much burst out laughing when I saw it... ;D

--Bruce

MishaK

BTW, you may have seen Michael Hovnanian's post on rehearsing with Boulez: http://csobassblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/week-20.html

bhodges

Wow, no, I didn't.  How have I missed this blog?  He's quite good!  And all the references to "unnamed orchestra" etc. are hilarious.  (As if somehow we can't figure it out.)

Thanks, I've now bookmarked it, and might have to add it to my blogroll. 

--Bruce

MishaK

Quote from: bhodges on February 01, 2008, 01:02:41 PM
Wow, no, I didn't.  How have I missed this blog?  He's quite good!  And all the references to "unnamed orchestra" etc. are hilarious.  (As if somehow we can't figure it out.)

Actually, originally it was named and the title of the blog was CSO Bass Blog. But then someone mentioned that he shouldn't be using the orchetra's name when it isn't the orchestra's official view.

uffeviking

Wow! There is his Sinfonia in the background, for about the 5th time - at least three times concentrated listening - and I thought I had discovered something new and special. Searched GMG before I opened my big trap and find two pages of great posts.  8)

I had never listened to Berio but in my Donaueschingen collection is a performance of the Sinfonia and I perked up: "That's Der Rosenkavalier!" and sent my monumental discovery to a conductor friend on another forum. He replied with a list of all the composers and their compositions and recommended the Riccardo Chailly. I ordered it, received it today and of course I am now hooked on Luciano! - No, not the fat guy, Silly! -  ;D

MDL

#26
It's over two years since anybody's shown any love to Berio on this thread. Shame!

Last night, while trawling gormlessly through YouTube, watching trampolining dogs and sock puppet productions of King Lear, I found that some rather wonderful person had posted the RCA recordings of Berio's Nones and Allelujah II. I love both pieces, particularly Allelujah II (which I misspelt Alleluja II in a previous posting), scored for five ensembles spread around the audience. OK, the earlier sections of Allelujah II have a faint whiff of cat-walking-up-and-down-a-piano serialism, but stick with it; the piece blossoms and develops in a beautiful and spectacular fashion.

Neither recording has been issued on CD. Why on earth not, RCA?

A big thank you to YouTube poster Wellesz; is he/she a GMGer?

Nones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGnY6Y42dK4


Allelujah II:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO75hFLDc84

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4gGuPn_l9c&feature=PlayList&p=25CBEC8974301702&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=7


snyprrr

Quote from: MDL on July 07, 2010, 04:15:02 AM
It's over two years since anybody's shown any love to Berio on this thread. Shame!

Last night, while trawling gormlessly through YouTube, watching trampolining dogs and sock puppet productions of King Lear, I found that some rather wonderful person had posted the RCA recordings of Berio's Nones and Allelujah II. I love both pieces, particularly Allelujah II (which I misspelt Alleluja II in a previous posting), scored for five ensembles spread around the audience. OK, the earlier sections of Allelujah II have a faint whiff of cat-walking-up-and-down-a-piano serialism, but stick with it; the piece blossoms and develops in a beautiful and spectacular fashion.

Neither recording has been issued on CD. Why on earth not, RCA?

A big thank you to YouTube poster Wellesz; is he/she a GMGer?

Nones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGnY6Y42dK4


Allelujah II:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO75hFLDc84

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4gGuPn_l9c&feature=PlayList&p=25CBEC8974301702&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=7

Wellesz seems to be the YouTube poster of note, eh?

I have the Sony disc with Chorale and Points on the Curve, etc., (Boulez), which, how can anyone not like that?

The Arditti disc of SQs is uniformly excellent. I think I like his last piece, Glossa, the best.

Then I have the 3min brass quintet, Call. The 5min O King. The violin Sequenza.

There might be another piece or two. I find his output slightly befuddling. It appears that he had quite a burst of creativity in later years, and I haven't been able to keep up. I still don't think I've listened to Sinfonia.

Of course, I'd like to get a set of Sequenzas, the set I suppose he is best known for (next to Sinfonia and Coro). I really need a version of the piano one.

As with the Bernd Zimmermann thread, I am curious about Berio being one of the first to do collages. Is Sinfonia Post-Modern?

I'm going to have to check his Works List.

snyprrr

Quote from: snyprrr on July 07, 2010, 05:58:15 AM
Wellesz seems to be the YouTube poster of note, eh?

I have the Sony disc with Chorale and Points on the Curve, etc., (Boulez), which, how can anyone not like that?

The Arditti disc of SQs is uniformly excellent. I think I like his last piece, Glossa, the best.

Then I have the 3min brass quintet, Call. The 5min O King. The violin Sequenza.

There might be another piece or two (solo cello). I find his output slightly befuddling. It appears that he had quite a burst of creativity in later years, and I haven't been able to keep up. I still don't think I've listened to Sinfonia.

Of course, I'd like to get a set of Sequenzas, the set I suppose he is best known for (next to Sinfonia and Coro). I really need a version of the piano one.

As with the Bernd Zimmermann thread, I am curious about Berio being one of the first to do collages. Is Sinfonia Post-Modern?

I'm going to have to check his Works List.

I just checked his Work List, and wow!, he's lots of stuff that doesn't seem to have been recorded. He seems to have been really popular in the LP era, but a lot of that is the Berberian stuff.

I am curious about the '70s orchestral works, Bewengung, Ephkrasis(sic), Eindrucke. What might I enjoy?

His Amazon discography seems to divid into groups: the Schubert/Rendering type stuff, a few piano discs, vocal cds, various cds with one or two Sequenzas & Chamber Music & O King. We have three sets of Sequenzas.

After going through about 300 listings, I was struck by my "eh-ness". Why doesn't non-vocal Berio really really excite me? It seems that most of the reviewers, too, have a slight lack of total enthusiasm for the non-vocal Berio. Is he just a very professional, 20th century composer, who does everything with a certain amount of creativity, but often falls short of true memorability? Obviously, the vocal works don't count here.

His Work List is huge, and I didn't know he had so many "early works". I'm more bewildered than when before I checked.

MDL

#29
Quote from: snyprrr on July 07, 2010, 05:58:15 AM
and I haven't been able to keep up. I still don't think I've listened to Sinfonia.

I think you'd know if you'd listened to Sinfonia. It's one of the most distinctive and unforgettable works of the avant-garde.

Quote from: snyprrr on July 07, 2010, 05:58:15 AM

As with the Bernd Zimmermann thread, I am curious about Berio being one of the first to do collages. Is Sinfonia Post-Modern?


What do you mean? Post avant-garde, the way Penderecki turned his back on modernism and tried to become the new Bruckner in the mid '70s? No, it's a pretty wild out-there extravanganza of sound.

CRCulver

The classic recording of Coro, where Berio himself conducted the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir, was reissued by DG in its "Echo 20/21" series a few years back. However, DG has allowed all of the "20/21" and "Echo 20/21" discs to fall out of print.

Luckily, Brilliant Classics bought the rights to this recording, at least in Europe (can't find it on Amazon.com, must not be available in North American). I just bought the Brilliant reissue today for 6€. No sung text, but there is a 2009 essay by John Fallas.

BMW

Any thoughts on Berio's orchestrations of early Mahler songs?

canninator

Quote from: James on December 10, 2010, 05:02:29 AM
...guitarist Eliot Fisk...

I've never heard Fisk play the Sequenza. If it's like his other recordings it's probably the musical equivalent of a drunk beating his wife. Having not heard it though I'd appreciate your thoughts?


MDL

I bought this as soon as it came out, mainly for the Concerto for Two Pianos:




It's an excellent, fascinating release ruined by the sleeve notes. Any info about the music to guide the listener? You must be joking. What do we get instead? Meaningless, completely unintelligible "poetic" musings. Whoever decided to fill the pages with that useless crap should be shot. Or at least sacked.

springrite

Quote from: MDL on December 10, 2010, 08:08:02 AM
I bought this as soon as it came out, mainly for the Concerto for Two Pianos:




It's an excellent, fascinating release ruined by the sleeve notes. Any info about the music to guide the listener? You must be joking. What do we get instead? Meaningless, completely unintelligible "poetic" musings. Whoever decided to fill the pages with that useless crap should be shot. Or at least sacked.

I just listened to this last week and was thinking the same thing. Great music, but what is all the writing about? Not that the music needed that much explaining. But the random-musing almost caused me to want to read something intelligible.
Do what I must do, and let what must happen happen.

snyprrr

I just heard the Sequenza XIV for cello, played by Matt Haimovitz on this intriguing new cd '300 Years of Italian Cello' (with Gabrieli, Sciarrino, Dallapiccola...). I must say that this cello solo is one of the best I've ever heard, starting off with bongo sounds, and going through the whole riggamarole by the end. There are lots of interesting sounds along the way, making this the least cello sounding cello piece I've heard. Haimovitz plays it like a jaguar... sleek and long... this is a very polished, modern piece that is just a head-nodder.

I hadn't expected such a joyful surprise of a piece. Bravo!

not edward

That looks like a great disc--and there was a cheap copy on amazon.ca -- thanks for the heads-up!
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

snyprrr

Quote from: edward on October 25, 2011, 01:02:07 PM
That looks like a great disc--and there was a cheap copy on amazon.ca -- thanks for the heads-up!

Yes, it's quite a good step for Mr. Haimovitz. The album is 'concept', so, there is a lot of talk about his awesome cello, which does indeed make a uniquely rich and tangy sound. Beware, though: my copy came in the most laughably flimsy packaging,... as if the see-through tray were missing,... if you get it, you'll see. You'll want to do some packaging modification. tsk tsk on the company for such a mind blower. The music, however, makes a great recital! Cheers!!

Pessoa


snyprrr

Quote from: Pessoa on November 13, 2013, 09:46:49 AM
Keep going!

Wow, 2 whole years for a Berio Post! So let's get to it then? Does it seem as though the fires for Berio have cooled somewhat? I'd love to know where James places Berio.

All the Berio I've ever really 'needed' has come on that old Boulez/Sony disc of 'concertos', though, the String Quartets by the Arditti are a true prize.

I just find his output so... spare? But, let's put it context. Did he get the Ligeti Treatment? No. Lutoslawski Treatment? No. As far as recordings go, he sort of falls into the Xenakis category, though, I do believe there is a more Complete Berio Recordings, though I don't know the actual percentage.

There are two pieces I'm curious about (anyone?): Eindrucke(?), and Epkrapis(?!!). Is there also a Begunengung(?)?