Repertoire: The BEST and WORST Berg Violin Concerto 

Dear Dave, congratulations for reaching 5,000 subscribers! I have been watching for the past days the number slowly inching towards 5,000 and I happy to see that it finally got there. I hear that when reaching 10,000 one becomes some kind of RU-vid Royalty 😊

I love the music of Wolfgang Rihm! And I am somebody!!!!!!

Wow, that perlman ozawa disc is great; I even liked that "yucky" thing at the end. Thanks Dave, that really made my day.

I enjoy the Berg concerto, but my favourite all-time violin concerto is Schoenberg!

Szeryng / Kubelik was for a long time my only recording. Some time ago I got Kyung Wha Chung, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Georg Solti.

I appreciate your input about Berg's Violin Concerto... Understanding Berg's creative vision, the Violin Concerto is a masterpiece in every sense. In the piece, Berg's composition uses alot of natural signs, which may be a permutation of one "tone row" to that of another within the same measure. Alban Berg, along with Ravel, are among the best "notators of the 20th century... Anyway, appreciate your input on this masterpiece... I just wanted to add in mine...

If you want the Anne Sophie recording without the Rihm, and you're a fan of Berg in general, There is a great DG box set of Berg and it has 8 discs of his best stufft. It's got the Abbado recording of Wozzeck, the Boulez Lulu, Barenboim playing the opus 1 piano sonata, zuckerman and parenboim doing the concerto for violin piano and 13 winds under boulez, Meyer pyaing the clarinet pieces, etc etc, it's the best box of Berg out there and a great way to get hold of the glorious Anne Sophie ricording of the concerto. All pieces that are worth giving an actual listen.

Hello Mr Hurwitz. I would like to ask you to make a talk about Alban Berg's operas Wozzeck and Lulu. Best wishes Fred.

Well David, I agree with you, I LOVE Frank Peter Zimmerman'musicianship, even in the recent Berlin Phil CD 2021...but thanks, you made me discover THE Anne Anne Sophie Mutter version! with James Levine, an opera conductor ( Wozzeck and Lulu are in the violin concerto) , a refined musician with fantastic tempi! Its incredibly well recorded! Anne Sophie Mutter is Wunderbar! as top violinist and musician! We finally hear this Concerto! A few years ago, in Carnegie hall, I heard FP Zimmerman with Vienna Phil LIVE. Loved it too! I was lucky to hear this!

I can only thank you for your channel, your explanations are clear and full of passion, again grazie!

Great talk as always. But I have yet another work to prove that 12-tone-music can be wondeful, when written by a genius: The 1st Piano Concerto by Alberto Ginastera. I even buyed the full score, because I wouldn't believe it. (Another stunner is the 1st Piano Concerto by Richard Rodney Bennett - but it's more twelvetony than the Ginastera.)

Louis Krasner shouldn't be dismissed so casually. He commissioned the Berg concerto and premiered it. He also premiered the Schoenberg concerto with Stokowski. From the NY Times obituary: "Composers admired his technical fluidity and the persuasive warmth that Mr. Krasner brought to their music, and he gave the premieres of works by several American composers, among them Roger Sessions, Henry Cowell and Roy Harris." Perhaps the poor 1930's recording quality had something to do with criticisms of his tonal quality in the Berg concerto recording.

'Berg-ian Nirvana.' Can't imagine a finer place to be!

I got that stern off limewire over 10 years ago. Never knew what the cover looked like.

The Szeryng isn't my fav, but I respect it and the two Schoenberg performances as well, and a big thing going for it (at least when *I* got it) was that it was very low priced for the works on it.

Thanks, Dave for your review of one of last century’s greatest works! When I was in high school I bought the Stern/Bernstein recording and thought it was wonderful. Since then I have acquired several others, my first on CD being Kremer/Davis. Like you, I rarely listen to it and keep it in my main collection largely because of the booklet cover’s portrait of Berg by Schoenberg! Time to move it into the overflow closet. My go-to recordings are Zehetmair, Zimmerman (reissued on an EMI 2-CD set of other Berg works-all great performances), and one you didn’t mention: Daniel Hope with the BBCSO under Paul Watkins that also includes Britten’s Violin Concerto on Warner and both performances are superb. Then there is a special one for me that came as a BBC Music cover disc with Leonidas Kavakos and the BBSO/Andrew Davis where you can hear the orchestral part better than on commercial recordings because the violinist is not recorded so close to the mics. However, all four of these recordings are great and I try to alternate among them.

Haven’t heard this Zimmerman CD, but here on RU-vid he’s got an excellent performance with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Alain Altinoglu conducting.

hope, despair, anguish, love - it is all these things and deeper still. For me, it was the piece I would dive into when I needed to release the anguish of my wife's miscarriages. I have a wonderful daughter (a respected violin/fiddler herself at age 12) but on somber anniversaries, I turn on the Berg to let that work embrace the what could have been.

You like Stern? Wow. Stern in the 50’s was incredible! I wore out the Mutter Modern album.

This is a piece that I do not know well; I have the Perlman/Ozawa recording, but am very happy for the guidance on finding another view of the work. While we're in the neighbourhood, I'll put in a request for a future talk on "Essential Webern recordings", or something along those lines. I have the Boulez complete set, but I'm sure there must be some special recordings of this rather intriguing composer. Many thanks!

Hmmm... you've overseen Grumiaux/Markevitch which approaches the work through a classical lens. A beautiful performance. As for Abbado, I do prefer his account with Kolja Blacher and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra on DG.

I wish Bernstein had done more Berg - his 3 Pieces op. 6, Wozzeck and Lulu would have been pretty spectacular

Can’t believe you think the Kremer/Davis/Bavarian hasn’t held up IMO it’s by far the most beautiful especially in the second movement where the orchestra really shines in the climax the amount of reverb is just right all the misty harmonies really float. Kremer’s tone is just right for this concerto not too vibrato laden like all the others who play the Berg with a Tchaikovskly tone.

I listened to the Mutter recording this morning!

My favorite is still the SinopoliWantanabe w/Staatskapelle Dresden on Teldec. Luscious doom. What a piece this is.

Any thoughts about the Pinkas Zukermam/Boulez on Sony? It was the first recording I ever heard of the Berg and it’s been a sentimental favorite ever since it came out in ‘86. The Stern/Bernstein is my other favorite, as opposite of Boulez as can be!

Your suggestions are great But I had Kyung Wha Chung conducted by Solti. Perfect to my taste. And in historical recording Krasner brings me to an ethered universe. And I will surely buy the Zimmermann, if we still can find it.

I wonder why Vengerov hasn't recorded the Berg concerto. I assumed it was in his complete 1991-2007 box, but alas it is not. I see that Gil Shaham has recorded the Berg again with Tilson Thomas and San Francisco and it will be released next month. It is an all Berg disc, couplings are the 3 Pieces for Orchestra Op. 6 and 7 early songs with soprano Susan Phillips.

Thanks for the video. You mentioned reviews of other late 20th century concertos may be forthcoming. If it qualifies, then Frank Martin's Polyptyque deserves to be better known. It is haunting and unsettling, like the Berg. Regards, Martin Greenfield.

David, any hints if the Frank Peter Zimmermann Mozart Violin Concerti are the ones with Radoslaw Szulc or Jorg Faerber? If you don't want to reveal that until that video goes up that is fine :)

I'm not a huge fan of the second Viennese school, but I do generally enjoy this piece. We performed it in college, and I was sitting first double bass, which gave me an extremely rare opportunity to play a passage entirely solo!

My best friend was concertmaster in the Tucson and later Phoenix orchestras. He played this in Tucson a million years ago...ok, maybe 17 years...and the very conservative audience was not impressed and people got up and left. I've always been a proponent of modern music and I was irritated by this and wrote a letter to the board using this piece as support for more modern music and apparently it had some effect. The conductor, whom I met later on, mentioned it to me and I'm very happy I did what I did. Wonderful piece.

Thanks, David, for this video about my favourite concerto. I agree with all the recordings you have shown. And I am lucky to have listened to Zimmermann live in this concerto and he was absolutely astonishing. The bis (the slow movement of Bach second sonata) was also a truly magic moment. And I am so happy too because I submited the beginning of the first movement as one of the most beautiful melodies in the history of music. So twice thanks.

i would highly recommend the RU-vid live performance with Gil Shaham on the "Passion for Violin" channel! i just watched it in awe of the utter perfection of the playing and also the way he dances that waltz in the second movement. it's so gorgeously played. Shaham is one of my favorite violinists ever. he phrases in a way that makes perfect sense and his intonation and virtuosity is really quite something. it's my top pick for this work now. it's so perfectly in tune, that makes sense of the complex counterpoint. orchestra playing from NHK orchestra is also superbly in tune and with full confidence in the music.

An excellent review. The Shaham recording reminded me what an extraordinary concentration of major Violin Concertos appeared between 1935-41. These include Prokofiev no 2, Bloch (much underated nowadays), Bartók no 2, Barber, Britten and Walton. I can't think of any other period that saw such such a concentration of major violin concertos, with music to suit all tastes. (I am referring to concertos from the Classical period onwards, not including Baroque sets of six or twelve).

Great review. I love the Suk recording and the Perlman one is brilliant. Perlman, strangely, plays serious music very well. He is a bit of a ham, and when he plays "light" music, he wins the William Shatner Prize for overacting. But really, when he sits up straight and plays from the heart, it's fabulous. I haven't heard most of the others. Krasner wasn't Heifetz. But he was willing to play new, difficult music. The Second Vienna School guys had their little circle of dedicated performers like Krasner, Kolisch and his quartet, Busch, Steuermann, really a handful of people who bit the bullet and learned their music. But the recordings, for the most part, are not great. The Kolisch Quartet recordings of the 4 Schoenberg quartets are so awful that the players distanced themselves from the result. One interesting thing about the Berg Concerto is that it's the rare case where a later edition made real, audible improvements to a piece. Berg died before he had a chance to proofread the orchestra score, and it was full of mistakes, and especially in the solo violin part, oddly enough. The passages that are corrected in more modern recordings really do make more musical sense. If you don't know the score, though, the old recordings are quite serviceable and make the music's point clearly enough. I knew the piece well in the pre-corrected edition, so I have to deal with cognitive dissonance when I hear the corrected version.

Thanks, that's most illuminating. I do find Perlman a bit shallow in emotion here, as if the music is too easy for him to play and I don't get the connect with the orchestra that I do with say Stern and Bernstein, my current favourite (I have not heard Zimmerman yet). Could I also just mention Menhuin/Boulez and Grumiaux/Markevitch, both very fine performances, very well recorded too. Have just heard Zimmermann, yes it's a fabulous performance.

You are absolutely right about the Perlman recording. It is entirely underrated. When I want to listen to the Berg (or the Stravinsky), this is the recording I reach for the most. I also have to agree with you about the Krasner recording. I do like historical recordings and I find this one interesting but it is by no means a first (or second or third) choice. The sound is too dim and Krasner's performance has not held up. I love the Stern and the Szeryny, but I can't agree with you about Annie Sophie Mutter, though. Cold as an arctic pine. I also think you're too hard on Isabella Faust. The coupling is strange, but her playing is fascinating. I think she brings a lot of unexpected color to the work and makes choices that others don't which bring out interesting aspects of the piece that you don't normally hear. I'm interested to hear the Frank Peter Zimmermann. He is an excellent violinist. Oh! And what a joy that Gil Shaham disc! I love his Berg but his live version of the Barber is even better than his famous studio version!

In defence of Krasner and the other musicians from the first performance, the story apparently is that the demented conductor Anton (von) Webern spent the first two rehearsals exclusively focusing on tuning the initial 8 measures of the row (!?!?), requiring a new conductor to be brought in to get through the rest of the piece in the one remaining rehearsal...

On the Schoenberg concerto growing on you (like a fungus). Well, that's one reason, why Schoenberg is my favourite composer. Actually, his violin concerto didn't grow on me yet. But I think, some day it will. And so many other pieces have: Pierrot lunaire, the 2nd string quartet, the piano pieces, the string trio, the first string quartet (which is harder to listen to than the second, although it's still kinda tonal). Even stranger the Suite op. 29 and his uncomical comical opera "Von heute auf morgen" I liked quite immediately.

I do have both the Faust and Von Mutter - I agree with you.

Rihm has everyone's respect but I know it's a far away trip ! She played some other guy's music in Miami with the Berg . Don't remember a second ...

Thank you, Dave. I just logged on to YT, two minutes after the upload! I love 20th century concertos, and have one or two 'Bergs'. I'm rather drawn to Gil Shaham (Canary) for an additional recording. I particularly like him., and to have new versions of the others on the set, is tempting - too tempting, perhaps!

Gosh! You binned the Faust recording. The musical establishment think it’s the greatest recording of all time. In my humble appreciation it seems very moving. But as I’ve watched many of your firm but intelligent reviews and agree with the majority of your recommendations, I believe you! Your Elgar criticism is first rate.

Oh, sad to hear about Gitlis, what a character he was. I have the Suk, Mutter and Szeryng/Kubelik.

IHurwitz really knows this score well . Was he a conductor . He knows the score better than I do and I've studied the score on and off for over 10 years ! I heard Anne Sophie Muller play this in 2016 in Miami with Michael Tilson Thomas . The Berg Sonata is gorgeous and played by everbody . Wow he sang the perfect 5ths . The Bach cantata is quoted most noticeably ! I have the score but really can't understand the tone row and how he gets so much glorious . The Schonberg was bravely recorded by Hilary Hahn . Who payed for that. Englund ? Webern (1936 )conducted the first recording ! Wow!

The Capuçon-Harding-Vienna performance is the only version I have, which perhaps explains why I've failed to see the magic in this piece, despite wanting to.

The Zimmerman is really good. I have it in an EMI two-disc set of Berg stuff (the usual suspects). Another that I really like is the Renauld Capucon/D. Harding/Vienna Phil. one on EMI. It's rich and decadent sounding. Granted, the Brahms concerto that it's coupled to isn't terribly competitive. Suk/Ancerel is another really good one.

Can you talk about Bernstein’s Serenade After Plato’s Symposium? That’s an absolutely fabulous modern violin concerto and I’d be interested to hear your recommendations for the best recording of that piece.

Faust/Abbado is certainly mannered... I just happen to like the mannerisms here. In both concertos, as it happens. But my favorite has got to be Steinbacher/Nelsons... incidentally also coupled with the Beethoven. P.S. Yes, Mutter *is* great in this repertoire; really in anything 20th century. Rihm softened later; his 2006 (?) Piano Concerto (technically his second; nominally his first) is surprisingly romantic-fab. And Yay for Robertson/Shaham.

I could not agree more, Frank Peter Zimmerman is a great violinist and this is a great recording. His Bach violin sonatas also give me great listening pleasure.

What about Menuhin? The first time I heard this concert was with Menuhin.

I don't get why people feel like they have to qualify positive comments about Itzhak Perlman, who has a wonderful discography in both the major concertos and chamber music, just because he also played light classical and crossover music. If I didn't already have so many of his recordings I'd have bought his big Warner and DG boxes.

Great review! Thanks Have you heard the live performance with Joseph Szigeti?

I learned this piece from a CD through the public library, with Kyung Wha Chung's recording with Georg Solti & Chicago S.O., and it's the only one I really know, but I like it a lot, so I hope it's a good one

Perhaps a review of recordings of Wosseck could be in the offing. The Met premier in English with Karl Bohm is highly effective on Valhall.

Ha. I had the Frank Peter Zimmerman recording, but because I had two other performances, including Mutter, in my collection I just said, eh, I don't need this Zimmerman guy, and sold it on Ebay a year ago to some lucky sombeetch. Sucks to be me, I guess.

Thanks for this. I concur totally with your comments about the Mutter/Levine recording. I’ve loved it for years. Just had listened to it yesterday, coincidentally. I’ve gotten to the point the the Rihm Time Chant doesn’t even bother me anymore. I used to shut it off, but I don’t bother now.

There’s another Gil Shaham recording of the Berg coming out soon with Michael Tilsen Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony coupled with the Three Orchestral Pieces and Seven Early Songs. I assume this is a live recording which promises to be really good.

A great work, but also we have to say that Schoenberg wrote a violin concerto which is also a fantastic work!

You're wicked! Wolfgang Rihm v interesting modern composer.

Do yourself a big favor, check out the Grumiaux recording. It is transendent. I know, you wouldn't associate Grumiaux with Berg, but listen to it.

Thanks Dave! The only violin concerto where absolutely everyone can play the first few bars and it’s just marvellous that the whole work returns to that, so much respect for the instrument as well as everything else that’s going on in there. I believe that the beautiful Bach chorale is also in some sense serial so the whole thing is so marvellously put together :) I agree about Frank-Peter Zimmerman- I have him doing it with the concertgebouw in their Chailly box and it’s fine for me. Having difficulty with your most beautiful melodies as so much depends on context and harmony etc but I thought maybe Rameau’s aria “tristes apprêts, pales flambeaux” from Castor and Pollux might work, you haven’t done much if any Rameau, and he’s as interesting in his own way as Bach and Handel. Lots of recent recordings. It’s a super beautiful, rather grave melody, with a remarkably effective bassoon part. It manages to be very formal and clear (quite French) but also very elegiac and emotional. It’s at least as good as some of the other contenders, but it’d be good to hear your reviews about rameau generally :) Take care Murray Low

I absolutely love Perlman's recording though I'm not always a huge fan of his playing (let alone Ozawa's conducting). But as you say, they both seem to be inspired here and the Stravinsky is superb. Also massive enthusiast for Suk/Ančerl. I know you couldn't talk about them all, but another one I like a lot is Arabella Steinbacher. Completely agree about Faust/Abbado. Among the other disasters there's also Menuhin/Boulez, but you were nice enough not to mention that.

Among all your subscribers, I'm probably the only one who likes avantgarde composers like Rihm. I know the majority of it isn't really good from an objective standpoint; however, I love how wacky and punishing some of it can be. Ah well!

I LOVE the Szeryng version...so passionate. And yes, the Schoenberg concerto is a nice coupling with the Berg. It definitely grows on you. PS: The Perlman version is beautiful and the orchestra is excellent under Ozawa. The recording quality is also excellent, picking up things I missed from the Szeryng version...but the pacing is a bit slow. I still favor the Szeryng. Just unbridled passion. He went for it and nailed it!

Up until today I`d written off any of this "school" of music. Then I decided to watch a video of the score along with Mutter`s rendition. I was pleasantly surprised at the fact there was actually a compositional sense to the work. I thought, "Wow....this is incredible." The rhythms and motifs were expanded upon in interesting ways.

By any chance are you planning on reviewing any viola concertante works in the future? Maybe works by Walton, Hindemith, bartok, etc.

Finally someone tells the truth about Krassner who had a big career . Surprisingly a lot of the old golden era players don't so good ! Find it hard to believe the Capucon so recent is not a superlative recording ! Szeryng knows it all . Serkin in the Schonberg piano concerto - must find this! Josef Suk and Ancerl !!! Stern and Bernstein I must catch ! Zehetmair is a genius ! Must find Hartmann !

Just been listening to Isabella van Keulen’s live performance in Gothenburg (2007) on Chandos on a double SACD set. I found it very sensitive and more powerful then many more extravert performances. Very moving and a tad more reflective than many.

Thanks for this! My introduction to this wonderful concerto was Menuhin/Boulez (EMI). However, I cannot recommend it. The fault lies not with Boulez but with Menuhin's rather strained sound. The coupling is Bloch's concerto with the Philharmonia under Kletzki. That fares a bit better. At the moment, my go-to choice is Mutter.

The orchestral balance in the Perlman recording is incredible.

the perlman/bso/ozawa recording is an all-around great recommendation, aside from a bizarrely spotlit harp glissando at about 5'O5" in the second movement (which makes me wince every time i hear it). sensitive, impassioned playing from perlman and an orchestra and conductor who have the full measure of this astonishing work. and, aside from the above-mentioned anomaly, the sonics are great too. (p.s. i think it's still possible to track down the initial cd release of this recording, sans the ravel, which was added as a makeweight when when it was reissued as part of the mid-price "dg originals" series.)

I laughed at your "Yuck!" for Ravel's Tzigane, because I think it must be the ONLY piece by Ravel I've ever not liked at least a little. Coincidentally, I've only ever heard it as the music for the dance Balanchine choreographed for Suzanne Farrell and the New York City Ballet. And that's one of the few Balanchine ballets that seems totally senseless to me. Begone, Tizgane!