Repertoire: The BEST Schoenberg Gurrelieder

This is one of very few channels that never irritates me. Never. It is always interesting and Dave is so funny. I learn a lot, it gives me many laughs and it always makes me in a good mood. If I'm down, a video with Dave always makes me feel better. Thanks a lot!👍

This may be the funniest review you've ever done of a work I dearly love and have known well for over 50 years.

You are funny as hell, my friend. You remind me of the guys I grew up with in the NYC area. Thanks for making my day. Now I'll go see which recordings of Gurrelieder I own and consider one more from your recommended list.

I just discovered your channel, really enjoyed the Mahler symphony recording review videos I viewed! BUT...as you admit, you do NOT get this piece. The text by Jens Peter Jacobsen, translated into German from the original Danish, is a masterpiece in symbolism, similar to the text of Pelléas and Mélisande. It's intentionally suggestive and ethereal, not like a story you'd find in a Verdi opera, which seems to be what your were expecting. I think Scheonberg's music is a great fit for the text, building, fading, rising again, like huge waves or the tide, with fantastic use of leitmotivs. You have to approach it with the right mindset, maybe similar to how you'd approach a performance of Parsifal, with patience and some reverence, and (assuming the performance is good) it really pays off. Except for its somewhat flat and muddy sound quality, I personally LOVE the Boulez recording, because all of the soloists are fantastic and because Boulez profoundly understands the work. All the characters are themselves symbols/architypes. The Narr and the Bauer are not meant to be fleshed-out humans with full ranges of emotions and backstories. They are static representations, like statues on the exterior of a gothic cathedral. The lovers are a bit more than that, but really they are only there to express the complex, bitter bliss of love, and in the case Waldemar in part three, pathos leading to insanity. There is a note of acceptance in Waldemar's last aria, and the ending narration and final chorus pull as away to a higher view, to see that life goes on, and how beautiful life and the world can be despite the horrendous pain we sometimes go through. For me, it is one of the greatest and most cathartic moments in music. And god, I HATE the Ozawa recording, mostly because of McCracken and Klemperer. I don't know his earlier work, but in this recording McCracken is a brutal hack of a tenor with no sensitivity and a rough tone much better suited to The Music Man or at best Carmina Burana. Klemperer's voice is so weak he needs to be mic'd, and he makes zero attempt to actually follow the Sprechstimme notation. It is god awful schmaltz that makes me cringe. Everyone, please have some brandy or an edible, sit with a good translation in hand, and give the Boulez recording a good listen.

For goodness sake, David. If you don't like the work, why bother to do a video on your website. I personally think it one of the most fabulous pieces ever written, and the final chorus is out of this world

Wow! Thank you David! I have been TRYING to like this for years... in several different recorded versions ( which I now don't have! ) phew! Now I can give up with a clear conscience!!!!

There IS a hidden gem in the Gurrelieder discography: a much underrated recording by Herbert Kegel and East-German forces on Berlin classics.

I now understand the hallmark of a Hurwitz recommeded performance, in a word, exciting. I hadn't really listened to the Blomstedt SFO Sibelius until his recommendation, and they are. I've also enjoyed the Jansons Bartok Concerto for Orchestra just today, and a heap of other things bought cheaply. I notice these chats are now feaatured on music industry adverts. I particularly like the random choice in repertoire, and my listening has widened as a result, for instance the Kocsis/de Waart Rachmaninov concertos. So a bright light in a black year. Cheers.

You gave me a good laugh today. I have the Boulez on vinyl, but I saw Jesse Norman do it at the proms. When was that?! Hilarious!!

I think I own five Gurrelieders and I love it. Best German love music since Tristan. Gorgeous. Every bar beginning to end despite the stylistic inconsistency. The only Schoenberg piece I do love.

I'm glad you mentioned Ferencsik. It has a great sense of occasion and quite some soloists.

Many, many decades ago I read a review of the Ozawa recording in one of the old HiFi magazines. While praising the recording the reviewer went on to say that the concert done at Tanglewood in 1974 with pretty much the same forces was superior. He mentioned that the orchestra has a tape recording of that Tanglewood performance and he wished that this recording would be released. I share that wish as I was a student at Tanglewood that year and was at this concert and was blown away. The piece was new to me so I really didn't have anything else to compare it with though. I'm going to wait only a couple of more decades for that recording to be released and if it isn't then I'll get the recording with your coughing contribution.

A friend told me I needed to discover this piece only a few days before your video. I’m glad I watched it and got your recommendations, but I found Cristian Theilemann’s brand new recording with Dresden and some heavy hitters including Christa Mayer and Franz Grundheber. I don’t know the work well enough yet to comment on pacing, but great transparency and color from the orchestra

Ahh... Gurrelieder. I first heard the opening 10 ins or so at a demonstration when I was 14 - it 'blew' me away with its intertwined textures. It was the Boulez recording! I've loved it, all of it, ever since (with Chailly, that is) but I have to agree.. it's a work with problems and the sheer ensemble size promises more than it delivers - nevertheless it's one of my favourites - that didn't stop me laughing alongside the hilarious dry wit of the explanation of the work, nor the chosen recordings. Reviews such as this I like - because they challenge one - in a nice way!

I have always owned the Ozawa's version...and no one else!

This is by far the most funny description of Gurrelieder I have ever come across.

I like this piece! I don’t worry too much about what they’re singing about. Sinopoli is my favorite of the ones I’ve heard, the only performance that works for me, though I’ve not yet heard Chailly, Mehta, or Ozawa.

Great talk Dave (as always). spot on about the quality of the work I heard Ozawa's live performance when he did it at Carnegie Hall (about 1981-82??). I trust you heard it (and coughed) when recorded in Boston?

I agree - it isn't Schoenberg's best music, but it really does have its moments. I NEVER listen to the whole thing in one go except in concert. I absolutely love the final chorus for the sunrise - the quieter parts in the middle of it remind me of the scores to Esther Williams flicks that were written decades later. And I love all of Part I - to me, it's no droopier than Winterreise or most other Romantic song cycles. Droopiness is kind of the inevitable song cycle destination. Werner Klemperer is truly wonderful in the speaking part on the Ozawa recording. It's not his fault I keep expecting him to say "Hogan, what is the meaning of this?!" But I just can't listen to it with a straight face. The new generation has never seen "Hogan's Heroes", so they have a chance at appreciating it on its own merits. I remember sitting in my grandmother's living room, and the whole extended family watched the Evening at Symphony broadcast of that concert. We turned it on just after the music had started, and we had no idea what we were listening to. None of us guessed correctly. We turned it off at the end of Part I because - reasons. I would have kept listening, but I was a kid, and I didn't get to touch the dial (no remote back then).

Yes, Ozawa ! Nothing more to say. And now I know that your cough is in on the recording: even better. Fabulous ! A smoker ! (I’m using my new vocabulary I learned here). 😉 Greetings from Northern Germany.