Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #144078 in Music
• Released on: 2009-01-09
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .19 pounds
• Running time: 71 minutes

Customer Reviews

Extremely good recording
This recording is outstanding, and while many people find Berio a little intimidating, this is undoubtedly a collection of some of his most worthy pieces.

Which is odd, because at least two of these pieces have barely been seen on ANY recording medium for quite a while, if at all.

The pieces on the recording are as follows;

Chemins I
Chemins IIb
Concerto for two pianos
Formazioni

The first piece is currently on Youtube, but not nearly as good as the version here. It would appear to be the same performance though. And everything on this CD is a live performance. Each piece is a brilliant recording, clear and very accurately rendered.

Chemins I? I was tremendously excited to hear this, as I was studying the score for about two years and had a pretty fair idea of what to expect; ironically, I lost the score at an airport just shortly before hearing it for the first time. Fortunately, it's easily available from Universal Edition.

Chemins I is part of a series of expositions based on solo pieces for an instrument; these solo pieces are the famous "Sequenzas", which often use extended techniques, are ALL very demanding (I used to be able to almost play the flute sequenza, which is easier to bluff than the others, perhaps).

The Chemins pieces are just as complex; to get this stuff on CD you obviously need to find a very good soloist, and also ensemble players just as adept; and this isn't easy.

Anna Verkholantseva plays the harp part brilliantly. It does not completely track Sequenza II, which it is based on, but "includes" it as a subset. The harp part is somewhat more complex.

The orchestral performance is just as precise and inspired.

The situation with the Chemins pieces following Chemins I is curious. Berio used the viola sequenza (Sequenza VI) to provide the essential basis, and we have Chemins II as the sraightfoward Viola + chamber ensemble arrangement; but Chemins III is the same viola + ensemble but with a large orchestral part. It doesn't sound VERY different; but then Berio went back to Chemins II and went in a very different direction; and this version, Chemins IIb is the result. It is a quite different kind of soundscape and does different things; and the viola part is far less distinct if it is even there at all. Chemins IIc is even further away (it isn't here on this CD) and includes, of all things, a bass clarinet part.

I spoke to the man who played the premier of this piece, Harry Spaarney, and he related how very challenging the bass clarinet part was; I do hope that we'll hear that piece eventually. He is a marvellous and very experienced artist.

The Concerto for two pianos has been issued before on the RCA gold label, in that case it was played by Bruno Canino and Antonio Ballista. This performance sounds slightly different; and I don't have access to the score, so I can't comment. But the ideas are very clear.

Formazioni has been recorded before, and there are far more informed comments on that piece around by other people who have worked closely with it.

I think that this CD is good because it shows Berio's technique and style as it has moved from the serialistic period in the 1950s, up until the 1960s, through the later developments into what many people have termed his late impressionistic phase. These are labels with arguble relevance, but certainly you have a good slice through the various periods that he passed through.

And if you listen, you can indeed hear shades of Sinfonia, Tempi Concertati, and so many of the other pieces, Linea, for instance. It's a fascinating journey for those people who know Berio well, and must surely be novel and extraordinary for other who don't know him so well.

Either way, very highly recommended. A terrific and spirited set of performances!!!