ANTON WEBERN : Complete Webern (Pierre Boulez) 6xCD Box-Set (2000) APE (tracks+.cue), lossless

Those who are familiar with Pierre Boulez's earlier "Complete Webern" on Sony will notice that his new Deutsche Grammophon edition contains six discs to Sony's three. That's because Sony only included works for which Webern assigned opus numbers, plus the composer's Schubert and Bach arrangements. DG fleshes out the picture with all of Webern's posthumously published music, mostly dating from his apprentice years. Virtually all of these recordings already have been available. Discs one through three are given over to orchestral, choral, and chamber works with Boulez leading the Berlin Philharmonic, BBC Singers, and the Ensemble Intercontemporain. Soprano Christiane Oelze's survey of Webern's lieder with voice and piano occupies disc four, with the addition of three unreleased songs set to poems by Ferdinand Avenarius. On disc five, the Emerson Quartet plays all the string trio and quartet works. The final disc brings together the cello and piano music, the four pieces Op. 7 for violin and piano, and the piano works. Gianluca Cascioli's traversals of both 1906 movements for piano were previously released, while Krystian Zimerman recorded two tiny pieces and the Op. 27 Piano Variations especially for this collection.

We first encounter Webern writing music in a style that resembles Brahms with a little Grieg mixed in for good measure. Soon his harmonic palette blossoms with chromatic complexity and takes a refined turn during studies with Arnold Schoenberg. Finally, Webern's singular voice emerges by way of pocket pieces whose ascetic contours sport asymmetrical rhythms, canonic lines that leapfrog from instrument to instrument, and rigorously organized pitches. There's no filler, no fat, and every note counts.
Sometimes it's hard to grasp such fleeting, fragile, and texturally exposed music in a single hearing. When I hear a Webern work in concert, for instance, it's usually over before it begins. Imagine passing a Joan Miró painting while riding a bicycle and you'll understand what I mean. You need to find quiet listening space and know that you can play a movement or even a whole piece more than once.
Performing Webern well demands the utmost in precision and concentration, yet without negating the music's passionate undercurrents. Boulez has lived with this music a long time, and the refinement of his latest interpretations beggar description. The sonic advantages of the DG recordings play no small part, in that fine-tuned dyanmic adjustments at quiet levels can be heard with no compromise. The conductor's tempos have broadened since his 1967-72 recordings in the aforementioned Sony set, and instrumental balances are smoother, more blended than before. Yet the ferocity and edginess of the earlier versions haven't been superceded. Nor is the elemental force and dynamism of Dohnanyi's superb Cleveland Webern readings surpassed here.
No qualms, though, concerning Christiane Oelze, who negotiates Webern's treacherous, leaping lines as if they were nursery rhymes. Similarly, the Emersons leave no little detail unscrutinized, and make a lean contrast to the more opulent, aristocratic Quartetto Italiano Webern recordings from the 1970s. I'm sorry the not-so-famous Cascioli wasn't brought back to record the piano works assigned to the better-known Zimerman, whose mincing, overwrought Variations lack the grace and eloquence of Peter Serkin's recent Koch version.
An excellent booklet includes an introduction by Boulez, numerous photos of Webern at work and play, an informative essay by Paul Griffiths, a comprehensive Webern timeline, and complete texts and translations. Whatever reservations one might harbor about this or that individual performance, it is unlikely that this set as a whole will be surpassed in the near future. It belongs in every serious music library, private or public. by Jed Distler

CD1
Passacaglia . 5 Movements op. 5
6 pieces op. 6 fuga
german dances Inm smmerwind

CD2
5 pieces for orchestra
3 orchestral songs . symphony op. 21
cantatas . variations op. 30

CD3
piano quintet . lieder
5 pieces op.10 + quartet op. 22
concerto op. 24

CD4
lieder

CD5
works for string quartet & string trio

CD6
works for solo piano, violin & piano, cello & piano
All Tracks & Credits

SCHOENBERG : Piano Concerto; Klavierstücke, Op. 11 & Op. 19, BERG : Sonata, Op. 1, WEBERN : Variations, Op. 27 (Uchida-Boulez) (2001) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Arnold Schoenberg *
Concerto For Piano, Op. 42 = Klavierkonzert = Concerto Pour Piano (19:50)

Anton Webern
Variations, Op 27 (7:57)

Arnold Schoenberg
Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11 = Three Piano Pieces = Trois Pièces Pour Piano (13:57)
Sechs Kleine Klavierstücke, Op. 19 = Six Little Piano Pieces = Six Petites Pièces Pour Piano (7:42)

Alban Berg
Piano Sonata, Op. 1 = Klaviersonate = Sonate Pour Piano 12:57

Piano [Steinway & Sons] – Mitsuko Uchida
Conductor – Pierre Boulez *

SCHOENBERG : Pierrot Lunaire; WEBERN : Concerto, Op. 24 (Rattle) (1978-1991) RM / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

ANTON WEBERN : Complete Works Opp. 1-31 / Das Gesamtwerk / L'Oeuvre Intégrale (Pierre Boulez) (1991) 3xCD / APE (image+.cue), lossless

 

AKI TAKAHASHI – Piano Space = 高橋アキの世界 (1973-2009) 3CD | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Tracklist + Credits :

BACH / WEBERN : Ricercar (Christoph Poppen, The Hilliard Ensemble) (2003) APE (image+.cue), lossless

The conceit that informs this disc is that Bach and Webern's meditations of life, death, and eternity are essentially complementary, that Bach's Lutheran faith and Baroque aesthetic and Webern's Catholic faith and Modernist aesthetic speak of a shared belief in the luminous and the numinous. Indeed, so pervasive is the conceit that complementary performances of Webern's orchestration of Bach's Ricercata in six voices from The Musical Offering opens and closes the disc. And so successful is the conceit that this otherwise tired trick is incredibly effective. The credit for this success must go to conductor Christoph Poppen, whose conceit it is that informs the disc. From the first notes of the ethereal Ricercata through the spirituality of Webern's string quartet (1905), the dreadful mystery of Bach's Cantata No. 4 "Christ lag in Todesbanden," the sublime transcendence of Webern's Satze (5) für Streichquartett, and back to the ethereal Ricercata, Poppen's interpretation makes a whole aesthetic experience of these seemingly disparate pieces. The singing of the Hilliard Ensemble is powerfully affecting in the cantata and the playing of the Kammerorchester München is superb throughout. ECM's sound is first rate. This is a great spiritual experience and a very great recording. James Leonard  

Tracklist + Credits :