Repertoire: Berio's Sinfonia--Still Astonishing Some Fifty Years On

One of the great masterpieces of the twentieth-century avant-garde, Luciano Berio's Sinfonia has been recorded quite a few times, perhaps surprisingly given its logistical challenges (a large orchestra with eight vocal soloists). I'll tell you which versions are the best.

[@shostakovich343]

I just realised -- the scherzo of Mahler's second uses the tune of "Des Antonius von Padua fischpredigt", about fish who listen to Antonius' preachings but don't pick up on anything. So by playing it under a history of Western music Berio may state how humanity has literally listened throughout the ages without learning anything. Perhaps obvious to some, but a small revelation to me.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Totally valid, in my opinion.

[@mangstadt1]

I'm a Berio freak and I have three recordings of his Sinfonia--Chailly, Boulez and Eötvos, in order of purchase. I too enjoy the Chailly version the most. I got to see it live in Madrid around 2008, with the New Swingle Singers. They were performing versions of songs by the Beatles, but I went for the Sinfonia. It was great. So much intensity and tension in that third movement, and then the fourth movement was mesmerising. In another record of works conducted by Berio himself and with Cathy Berberian (RCA), you get Recital I for Cathy, the Folk Songs and three Kurt Weill songs translated to English or French and arranged by Berio. A wonderful CD, with the Recital borrowing samples from the likes of Monteverdi, Falla, Bizet and many others. I once spoke to Berio and handed him a letter. This was in 2001. I suggested that it would be interesting to be able to attend a performance of the Mahler Second with Berio's complete Sinfonia fitted in between the second and fourth movements. Berio died two years later, so at least he won't get the chance to hear that experiment.

[@Felipe.Taboada.]

Happy 1000 subscribers! you are doing a great job for the love of music.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Thank you!

[@murraylow4523]

Dear David. Thanks so much for championing this piece, although as you say it scarcely needs it and in the last couple of weeks we see it is hardly dated! I expect that as you say the Chailly recording is the best in terms of sound and so on, but wanted to let you know that there is another recording conducted by Berio, with the swingle singers, from the Concergebouw in May 1997, with the fifth movement. It’s a live radio broadcast in the Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra v. 6, so trickier to get than when it appeared, but I thoroughly enjoy it and it does exist! As it happens the same disc includes Eötvos conducting Feldman’s “Coptic light”

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Damn! Forgot that one. That's why I hate boxes,

[@ericnagamine7742]

My all time favorite performance of the Sinfonia is the Berio led Concertgebouw. Heard it on the live from the concertgebouw series while driving home one day. Had to keep going to find out who the performers were. So glad that the orchestra issued it in the Anthology box.

[@OctopusContrapunctus]

I recently have discovered this sinfonia and i am obsessed. I was skeptical since i heared some stuff from berio before when i was bit unprepered, but i was pleasently surprised and amazed every time i listen to it.

[@johnwright7749]

Chailly is also my favorite of this wonderfully crazy work, though I also like Pons. Sometime it would be interesting to have a discussion of Berio’s orchestral transcriptions, especially Rendering.

[@marcmurat3776]

Love this post with 20 century avantgard and luciano berio. Thank you.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

My pleasure!

[@jg5861]

Thank you for highlighting such a fabulous piece of music which more often than not is overlooked by skeptic audiences who associate Berio with some unattainable language. This is different. Berio always preferred curiosity and challenge to arrogance, at least his music tells me so. This is music so easy to like if people listen to it with inquisitive ears and minds!

[@mariosefardi-casella2730]

DAVID, thank you again for endorsing my choice!!! Two years ago I have bought Hannu Lintu on eclassical in HR and I am still enjoying that unreservedly.

[@davidmayhew8083]

I had the Swingle Singers version but I can't remember the conductor and orchestra. But it was very good. It really is genius that he could create such a complex tapestry in the 3rd movement and it comes off so well. Entertaining! Of course the 5th movement is not included but I did hear it in SF. I LOVED IT! The SF audience was just appalling! I was in maybe the 10th row and stood and cheered and applauded like a seal! I turned and saw people with their feet up on the chair in front of them. I was shocked how badly SF behaved. So I continued to applaud until I was the only one. The Singers came over and bowed TO ME!!! I was ecstatic!. !!!!

[@MrEdmundHarris]

I got to know it through the Chailly recording, which I have and love. But all the same, hearing the recording conducted by Berio himself some years later was a revelation - a massive amount of detail which had previously gone unnoticed suddenly revealed itself to me and pin-sharp, too.

[@Donaldopato]

Bought the Berio recording when it came out. The University music students were all over it. Still love that performance, despite not being complete. Still have the LP and can anticipate every vocal phrase. For complete performance, the Chailly is the one for me.

[@whistlerfred6579]

I wore out the grooves of my Berio/NYP/Swingle Singers record when it first came out and it has remained a favorite since then. And this may present a problem... Learning the work in the 4 movement version, I have yet to come to grips with the revision. I had thought the original ending was perfect - a (mostly) quiet fade to silence after the galvanic upheavals of the 3rd. I didn't see a need to add anything to that ending. But this may be a case of "this is how I learned it" resistance. Clearly, Berio thought it was needed, and it's his piece, after all. I'm going to check out the Chailly (I have the Boulez and Eötvös, as well as the Berio on CD) and see if this changes my mind. Thanks for another good review.

[@hmh6117]

Berio conducting his 5 movement Sinfonia has been recorded in concert in Amsterdam in 1997, with the that time swingle singers ! It's issued in a RCO LIVE edition / Anthology if the Royal Concertgenbouw Orchestra and it is a gorgeous recording ! Keep interest in live recordings ! :)

[@olinwilliams]

I was so looking forward to hearing Sinfonia with the Oregon Symphony and Roomful of Teeth -- the pandemic kicked in and now I wonder if I will ever hear it live

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Don't worry. It's done with some frequency these days. I'm sure you'll get a chance.

[@tedmann1802]

This is a remarkable piece, and not all that challenging to listen to these days. I recently watched a video of the Chicago orchestra (Boulez) in a 1995 performance in Tokyo (which included the fifth movement), and I couldn't help but notice the very straightforward way Maestro Boulez directed the orchestra. His technique was straight out of a beginners textbook on conducting. No chance of getting lost or confused. I thought he did an outstanding job. I don't think the piece calls for a great variety of emotional levels, but keeping the beat is paramount if the musicians are expected to synchronize their playing and end at the same time.

[@raspeln]

Had this on a cassette copied from a friend's copied cassette with zero information on it. That was in pre- or early internet days. In any case, the music was so ellocuent and powerful I didn't feel the urge to look for any paratext. Gather now from your coment about the preeminence given to the male soloist that it must have been the Boulez' recoding ("Thank you Mr. Boulez", duh!). But what strikes me is I was never quite sure whether the scherzo from Mahler's 2nd. in that deeply moving movement was actually performed live or played from a tape amd given some sort of live electornic treatment! Will try to move beyond the aural attachment to that version and listen to Chailly's or Berio's own. Love the videos. Always insightful and irreverent!

[@akvileaksinaviciute8508]

thank you mr. Hurwitz for a great video! I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on Simon Rattles interpretation of the piece, either the 1987 version with CBSO which is on youtube or the 2020 performance with the BerlinPhil available on their digital concert hall.

[@dennischiapello7243]

Thanks for making the case for Sinfonia. I heard it in Oakland, California in the 70s, with Gerhard Samuel and the Swingle Singers. Very memorable. What surprises me is that there doesn't appear to be a recording by Leonard Bernstein, or am I wrong about that? Berio, after all, dedicated it to him and the New York Philharmonic. Did Bernstein not care for the piece? Is there a story there? I do like Chailly best, but what I like about the Boulez disc, besides Ward Swingle's narration, is the pairing with Eindrucke. Fascinating piece. I recently pounced on the recording with Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony, mainly because I had just discovered Roomful of Teeth and thought they'd bring something wonderful to the work. Alas, they seem entirely overpowered, and the performance as a whole isn't particularly good. I do have a strong recommendation, David: that is, to pronounce Luciano like so: Lu-chano, and to ditch the Lucy-ano. Please. :* )

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Bernstein never did it, and I pronounce everything as I please. Berio spoke with an accent too. If I get it "right," fine. If not, too bad.

[@hmh6117]

@@DavesClassicalGuide A pity Bernstein never recorded the Sinfonia, althought he premiered the 5 mouvement version in 1970 ... as he did not record a Turangalia Symphony either :(

[@JohnMassari]

I need to listen to this music without reading the score for a change. I think, following music, while looking at the score, sometimes takes away from the experience of just enjoying the music.

[@williamharradine6120]

The mid-Sixties avant-garde had several examples of musical collages - B.A.Zinmerman was composing his Musique pour les soupers du Roi Ubu and his Photptosis around the same time, and may well have influenced Berio, but the Sinfonia is the piece which has got the most recordings. If you like the 3rd movement of the Sinfonia then search out Zimmerman on KZbin. I have the Chailly, but I have to disagree with you about Electric Phoenix - they are good, yes, but there was something both fresh and hypnotic about the tenor in the original Swingle Singers, which I loved.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Or we can just listen to Ives and say to hell with the rest!

[@Elvenraad]

I have all the recordings and I still think dat the Boulez recording is the best. I agree that the tenor is too much 'in the picture', but this performance has something that makes me want to play it over and over.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Fair enough!

[@dennischiapello7243]

I have exactly the same reaction. I think Ward Swingle's "narration" is mesmerizing. No one else can touch him. But the Chailly is my preferred recording otherwise.

[@stevehutton6984]

I don't think you can leave out the original Berio recording, last movement be damned. The balancing of the voices and orchestra on the original was perfect, and no other recording matches it. So I say take the original Berio version, and then listen to the best version of the final movement.

[@curseofmillhaven1057]

I'll never learn! There I was, smugly thinking it will be fine to tune into into this review, safe in the knowledge I have the Boulez (£4.99 well spent when Warner put it on their budget Apex label); surely that's all you need for Berio's Sjnfonia? Then Dave throws a Chailly curveball! Oh well I've spent most of my disposable income on music anyway, so one more piece of polycarbonate isn't going to break the bank - this one time!

[@curseofmillhaven1057]

Primephonic to the rescue of my bank balance! They have the Chailly and some others. Actually I checked out a version from Seattle, with the marvellously named 'Roomful of Teeth' vocal group. The version of O King on that is so beautiful!