Composer: Alban Berg, Johann Strauss
Performer: Christiane Iven
Orchestra: Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Marc Albrecht
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Pentatone
Catalogue: PTC5186363
Release: 2009
Size: 243 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Berg: Drei Orchesterstücke, Op. 6
01. No. 1. Praludium
02. No. 2. Reigen
03. No. 3. Marsch
Berg: 5 Altenberglieder, Op. 4
04. No. 1. Seele, wie bist du schoner
05. No. 2. Sahst du nach dem Gewitterregen den Wald
06 .No. 3. Uber die Grenzen des All
07. No. 4. Nichts ist gekommen
08. No. 5. Hier ist Friede
Berg: Sieben frühe Lieder
09. No. 1. Nacht
10 .No. 2. Schilflied
11. No. 3. Die Nachtigall
12. No. 4. Traumgekront
13. No. 5. In Zimmer
14. No. 6. Liebesode
15. No. 7. Sommertage
16. Strauss: Wein, Weib und Gesang, Op. 333
Berg’s chamber music version of the Strauss waltz ‘Wine Women and Song’, Op.333 is considered one of the curiosa of his oeuvre, and even today is seldom performed. Coupled here with Berg’s more substantial orchestral works, Christaner Iven is a great singer and is equally talented as an actress.
In the mid-20th century, when few recordings did justice to the music of Alban Berg, this disc with conductor Marc Albrecht, soprano Christiane Iven, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg would have been revelatory. Albrecht certainly understands Berg’s music, and though the Strasbourg orchestra is not a major orchestra, its playing here is a match for all but the very greatest in terms of tone and ensemble. Albrecht’s reading of the Drei Orchesterstücke is both precisely played and sensitively interpreted, and his accompaniments in the Altenberg Lieder and Sieben frühe Lieder are models of taste and sympathy. Iven delivers note-perfect yet thoroughly lovely accounts of the songs. Still, when this disc was released in 2009, it had 50 years of great Berg recordings to compete with, and as fine as this one is, it does not surpass Claudio Abbado’s magnificent recordings with Juliane Banse, Anne Sofie von Otter, and the Weiner Philharmoniker on Deutsche Grammophon. PentaTone’s super audio sound, though, is nearly as clear and immediate as Deutsche Grammophon’s digital recording.