If I Could Choose Only One Work By...BERG

[@David_Goza]

The fact that Wozzeck doesn't really formally begin, but rather simply starts - as if in medias res - coupled with the fact that it doesn't really formally end, but rather just stops, suggests that the whole thing could be looped and run through again, but this time with Franz's son - never identified by name - replaying the whole miserable story, an endless cycle of misery and abuse. That, to me, is one of the most powerful features of Wozzeck.

[@daniellibin5254]

Which other operas have similar beginnings? Così ?

[@RModillo]

@@daniellibin5254 Falstaff

[@marks1417]

The ending of the opera is shattering, the way that the music just stops like pages have been ripped out. This whole '..choose one work..' series is incredibly thoughtful.

[@EricGross]

Your capsule description of Wozzeck is perfectly concise and absolutely hits the mark. The cosmic ending of the work, the profoundly unresponsive universe, possesses awesome power.

[@daniellibin5254]

I love this opera. I love this choice. I love this series. Thank you.

[@Muzakman37]

The last few times I've listened to Wozzeck, I couldn't help getting the feeling Berg cried writing whole chunks of this, he must've been emotionally shattered by it, you really feel his sympathy for all the downtrodden folk in this work, all used & abused so unsparingly. It's a work that never loses its power, it only gets more powerful the more you listen to and attempt to understand it. Berg was made to set this story to music and it's his greatest gift to us all (however great the VC is).

[@richfarmer3478]

One of the few atonal works that doesn't leave me flat. The music just fits the story.

[@kenhunt278]

Then you should try "Moses und Aron." After 40 years working in the theatre, my single favorite opera. (Because it's actually about something important.)

[@kenhunt278]

But "Wozzeck" was played at the Met the day I was born, so there's that...

[@r.handerlie9607]

There was a topic on Reddit not too long ago about favorite 20th century opera and Wozzeck was the pick by a big landslide.

[@barrymoore4470]

'Wozzeck' is my favorite opera completely composed in the twentieth century.

[@barrymoore4470]

'Wozzeck' is, along with Debussy's 'Pelléas et Mélisande', my favorite opera. It's taut and succinct, while structured so brilliantly as music, and packs a dramatic wallop. It's exemplary of the ideal of 'dramma per musica' that lay at the very origins of opera in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

[@thomasvendetti3742]

What a wonderful explanation for your choice. An old friend, now long gone, described the music of Berg as 12 tone music with a human face. Wozzeck is unbearably meaningful. Its impact is not foreign to anyone who is aware of the suffering endured by so many in this sad world.

[@fredrickroll06]

I have never agreed with you so wholeheartedly as in the case of "Wozzeck." I think the heart-breaking last interlude is what saves this opera for the audience at large. I would suggest that, consciously or subconsciously, Berg intended it as an extremely bitter satire on Siegfried's Funeral March. In the honor of his anti-hero Wozzeck, Berg marches up all the main motives from the opera, much as Wagner, in the honor of his "hero" Siegfried, summons up the main motives of the entire "Ring." Siegfried does not evoke a fraction of the sympathy that we feel for Wozzeck. Siegmund invokes more compassion, but the aspect of the close of "Die Götterdämmerung" that actually moves us to tears is the reminiscence of the motive of Sieglinde's love - Sieglinde, the only figure in the entire "Ring" who actually awakens our compassion.

[@MarauderOSU]

I haven't heard Wozzeck yet, because I don't feel ready for it. I have heard and love the Violin Concerto, though.

[@EASYTIGER10]

For me - in a way - Wozzeck carries on where Strauss left off after Salome and Elektra. Strauss "stepped back from the brink" with Rosenkavalier and never fully retuned to the world of his earlier operas. He handed the baton he'd created to Berg. To me there are clear stylistic similarities. And BTW, I love both Strauss and Berg!

[@BryanHalo123]

I'll give Wozzeck another chance. I've not been able to finish more than half of this opera, so far. Berg's violin concerto hits me emotionally every time I hear it. It's hard to top even an average performance of the violin concerto.

[@austinhan6998]

Even though 12-tone was hard for me to get into, Berg would occasionally tap into familiar tropes that gently nudged me into understanding the music, whether it was an aria that resembled a lullaby, an out-of-tune bar piano, or even the mention of a windmill that includes the sound of a millstone played on a bass drum.

[@mcbill7352]

I think his piano sonata and three orchestral pieces are relatively accessible

[@HassoBenSoba]

A masterpiece that just keeps getting better. Abbado conducted a staged performance with the Chicago Symphony (spring, 1984) that, for some arcane, complex reason (union-related, I recall) was not able to be recorded, and thus is lost to time. The minimal staging was perhaps the IDEAL way to experience Wozzeck, not to mention Benjamin Luxon, Hildegard Behrens, the great Gerhard Unger (Captain) and Alexander Malta (Doctor). Stunning beyond belief....but sadly, preserved only as a memory. LR

[@thomasdeansfineart149]

Thank you for your eloquent comments. So beautifully put. 🙏🙏🙌

[@rhonda8900]

I tried to listen to Wozzeck but I just could not get through it. I found a great 9 hour recording called the Alban Berg Collection and I listened to a lot of the compositions but Mr. Berg just does not do it for me. If I had to pick something to save it would be the Three Pieces for Orchestra. I listened to the version on the collection by the Weiner Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado. I also enjoyed the 4 pieces for clarinet and piano.

[@chriskim7359]

I agree with Berg's Wozzeck as being the choice for him. It took me a while to get into it. On the other end, I'd love to see an entry for Rossini. The overtures leave out his splendid areas of his operas. I love the comic genius of his Barber of Seville, but he has other masterpieces as Guillaume Tell, La Cenerentola. You could pick Abbado's fantastic 4 opera collection as "a recording" (you have praised this in the past). His Messa di Gloria is a liturgical "opera" that is underrated.

[@jlaurson]

My instinctive answer would have been: Opus 1. But Wozzeck is, of course, the correct answer.

[@Nikolay76Gogol]

I like both Buchner's play and Berg's opera. The version, I used to listen hundreds of time, is with Fischer-Dieskau, Stolze, Wunderlich under Bohm. Any idea, whether Dohnanyi record of Wozzeck performed by Waechter is outstanding, David?

[@falesch]

Oh, good choice. I reach for Lulu more often but Wozzeck best fits the notion of "most characteristic" Berg, imo. I thought your presentation was superb, David. You've covered the 1st Viennese school, now it's time for Webern to complete your traversal of the 2nd Viennese School! All I can say about Webern is: At the moment I don't know which I'd choose, but it'd be from among the later works. I've never done this, but a mood has come over me to make a suggestion: Entsagung by Karlheinz Essl!

[@kjellmadsen6669]

So much to learn from this series. great! Looking forward to Sibelius. Living in a small neighouring country I appreciate the unapologetic nationalism of Finlandia, since, after all, Finnish nationalism under tzarist Russia is not like Russian nationalism then or now. Nevertheless, the one work should probably be Tapiola. this late piece is so essentially Sibelius. Nordic noir? I read somewhere that Tapiola is often played in South America -

[@phomchick]

I'm wondering if we will ever get to Messiaen or if our erudite host is perfectly fine with the evil God CAN*** destroying all of Messiaen's music and all human memory thereof. Assuming I am wrong about Mr. Hurwitz's indifference to Messiaen and his music, I would suggest the one piece to survive should come from this trio: Turangalila Symphonie, Vingt Regards Sur L'Enfant-Jésus, and Quartet for the End of Time. Even though Messiaen was known as an organist, not a pianist, he piano writing was extensive and the style is instantly recognizable, thus Vingt Regards. Turangalila might be chosen because, really, who else could have written this? It's a cross between a movie score and Mahler. And Quartet for the End of time is an incredible masterpiece, also immediately recognizable, and containing some of the most beautiful ethereal music ever written. I await the choice.

[@issadad]

I'm looking for a recommendation for Wozzeck on DVD or blu-ray. Any thoughts?

[@HassoBenSoba]

Get the 1970 Hamburg TV-film starring Toni Blankenheim, Sena Jurinac, and the great Gerhard Unger as the Captain (conducted by Bruno Maderna). It was filmed on location in an old, decaying German town that I think is exactly right in terms of atmosphere and visual tone. Really excellent. LR

[@issadad]

@@HassoBenSoba Thanks very much.

[@TenorCantusFirmus]

I just have analyzed it for the Conservatoire. What a coincidence!

[@dennischiapello3879]

Wonderful description of the final scene and its resonance--though you neglected the most pathetic detail of all: just before the curtain falls, the child gets off the hobby horse and goes running after the other children... I think even Cancrizans would end up sobbing and calling this whole thing off. Just like the Wizard of Oz.

[@geraldparker8125]

I know all the reasons to prefer Wozzeck, but I can't help preferring Lulu. Mainly, that's because Wozzeck the man is so off-putting and obnoxious. He's a twisted weirdo who is utterly unappealing as a human. When he dies, there is just one less wacko in what had been his world. Lulu, on the other hand, while pretty callas, is a survivor and she overcomes the undesirable situationa that beset her. She is resourceful, beautiful, and sexy, too. What's not to love? The drama is much more cnticing, whatever one thinks of the brilliant music.