Mario Venzago relinquished his conductorship of the splendid Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in 2007, having programmed all the orchestral works of Alban Berg. The recordings on this 2 disc set were made in the Konserthus from 2004 to 2007, in no less than 9 sessions, many of them double. It would be very difficult indeed to achieve seamless sound captures over such a length of time, and the engineering and editing team under Recording Supervisor Lennart Dehn have indeed not been entirely successful.

The warm acoustic of the Konserthus' wood-lined auditorum has been wonderfully conveyed in many recordings by BIS and even DGG, so it was disappointing to hear on the first 5 tracks of Disc 1 that the engineers had managed to make it sound almost like the Barbican. Even in 5.0 multichannel mode, there is almost no sense of the acoustical environment, and the whole orchestra is lined up in a 'wall of sound', with little or no front to back perspective. I found this claustrophobic. There was certainly plenty of detail and faithful reproduction of instrumental timbres, but with the percussion and brass so far forward the already angular and dissonant music felt too confronting. Only a minimal volume, long-delayed signal came from the surround speakers. In the German version of Der Wein (a setting of Baudelaire's poem about wine), tenor Robert Murray's voice was placed so close that I had to rapidly back off the volume control to tame the loud, hard and unflattering tone given to him.

Fortunately, the last two tracks of Disc 1 (Passacaglia and the Violin Concerto) have much improved sound. The warm acoustic of the hall provides bloom on the instruments, and there is perceptible front-back perspective, all this giving a more transparent and atmospheric sound, particularly at hushed moments. The whole of Disc 2 has this more open sound, which hugely increases the pleasure in listening to such colourful music.

Many will be interested in this issue because of the Violin Concerto, Berg's most romantic and popular piece. It was composed to mark the tragic death of young Manon Gropius, the daughter of Alma Mahler (Mahler's former wife) and Walter Gropius. The first two sections of the work are a portrait of the lively young girl, and Isabelle van Keulen and Mario Venzago are of one mind in their touching painting of her lithe, capricious, witty and sometimes awkward character. The violin is nicely balanced, and dances in and out of the glowing orchestral textures with sweetness and grace. The final part, where Berg introduces variations on the Lutheran choral "Es ist genug" (it is enough) is deeply moving and concludes a very fine reading of the concerto.

Apart from the Three Pieces Op. 6 (which are well done, if hampered by the close acoustic), there are several novelties on the first CD. Berg's Piano Sonata is regarded as one of his master-works, in its use of the serial technique with quite strict sonata form. However, I found that Theo Verbey's orchestration, while undoubtedly quite Bergian in style, was really over-guilding the lily. Drawn out to nearly 13 minutes, where the average timing for the piano original is 9-11 minutes, it looses the surges of passion and taut structural discipline of the piece, confusing us with colour and texture.

The Passacaglia is another makeover, this time a 'realisation' of two unfinished fragments from Berg's student days. There is usually a good reason why a composer abandons things, and this one, ending abruptly, seemed to me to be mainly of academic interest.

I found the French setting of Der Wein from 1929 very difficult to love, despite its emulation of a total alcoholic haze at the beginning, and tussles with tangos later on - mainly because of the claustrophobic recording. However, it returns in a German setting on Disc 2, beautifully (and seductively) sung by Geraldine McGreevy, and she finally won me over. She is superb too in the Three Fragments from Wozzeck and the Symphonic Pieces from the Opera 'Lulu'. Her characterisations are finely focussed and her vocal range impressive, although there are touches of shrillness above the stave under pressure. These excerpts are very well recorded, with atmospheric perspective and sumptuous playing, particularly from the Gothenburg brass, who make a very notable contribution to both these discs.

The programme ends with some very unbuttoned Berg: his transcription for small ensemble of the 'Wine, Women and Song' waltz of Johann Strauss. The Society for Private Musical Performances was formed to allow the members of the Second Viennese School to air their works without disturbance from rioting audiences. Just before disbanding, it held a Waltz Evening, with arrangements for piano, harmonium and string quartet - Schoenberg played one of the violins, Webern on cello and Berg on harmonium. Players from the Gothenburg orchestra seem to be similarly relishing this tidbit.

Something of a mixed issue, then, but if you want this lovely rendering of the Violin Concerto you might find further pleasures in the box. Recommended - with caveats if you are at all allergic to perspective-less orchestras. My rating is an average; I think the Violin Concerto alone would be worth 5 for performance and 4.5 for recording.

Copyright © 2009 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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This set is somewhat of a curate's egg from both a performance and recording perspective.

In the orchestrated piano sonata there are moments of fantasy, as in the closing transcription Berg made of "Wein, Weib und Gesang!" (although there is no question that the Gothenburg players are not in the same league as their Viennese counterparts). The recordings for both are a little strange, with the sonata sounding distinctly "flat". The small, incomplete, Passacaglia is given a more consistently contrasted account with a decent recording to match.

The violin concerto, with Isabelle van Keulen as soloist, is altogether given a very decent performance, full of detail and moments where van Keulen explicitly links Berg back to the Straussian Viennese school of composition. Included with these moments of levity is a serious concentration that maintains thematic unity throughout this masterpiece and makes the disc worthy of purchase in its own right.

The suites from Lulu and Wozzeck are also given largely fine performances, with great care lavished on all the details and yet retaining an eye for the overall sweep of the works. The two performances of Der Wein (one in French from Robert Murray - heady in tone, the other from Geraldine McGreevy - more directly appealing) are also given a sympathetic and engaging accompaniment that is quite sensual.

Less convincing though is the account of the 3 Pieces Op.6 where the recording is again quite flat and the approach from the podium is far too literal without any sense of lustre or fantasy. There are a few errors in direction and execution, most unforgivably at the very end of the work where what should be a dramatic and unified strike from the orchestra is heard in at least three different times (varying by section) - this should have been touched up.

So, in both recording quality and performance quality the set is very variable. Where indicated, some performances are very good (particularly the concerto) but the finest Berg disc currently available on SACD is easily Berg: Lulu Suite, 3 Orchestral Pieces - Gatti which deserves the very highest plaudits.

Copyright © 2009 John Broggio and HRAudio.net

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