# 20th Century Operatic Masterpieces: Part Eight - Berg's Wozzeck



## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

20th Century Operatic Masterpieces: Part Eight - Berg's _Wozzeck_




























This is the first great atonal opera. Its story is a grim one -- a poverty-stricken soldier struggles to support his illegitimate son and the boy's mother while enduring victimization and humiliation from virtually everyone he encounters, until finally he discovers that his girlfriend has been unfaithful. He murders her, and then, crazed with guilt and apprehension, he drowns while trying to recover the murder weapon from a lake. The final scene is chilling: we see tragedy beginning anew as the orphaned toddler, still unaware of what has happened, hops off innocently to where the older children have found the mother's corpse.

Berg saw the Vienna premiere of Georg Büchner's play Woyzeck in May 1914 and decided immediately to set it to music. It was three years, though, before he was able to begin work on the opera due to required military service; the experience heightened Berg's identification with the story's main character, the soldier Wozzeck. A family crisis and two serious intervals of bronchial asthma further delayed composition, but the work was finally completed in the spring of 1922. By 1923, the vocal score (published at Berg's own expense) had received critical praise, prompting Universal Edition to accept the publication of the full score. Wozzeck was premiered on December 14, 1925; despite opposition from right-wing factions in Berlin, it immediately became an unqualified critical and popular success.

Preliminary sketches of Büchner's play were recovered, faded and nearly indecipherable, 38 years after Büchner's death (at the age of 23) in 1837; the novelist K.E. Franzos painstakingly reconstructed them, and finally arranged for the drama's performance on November 8, 1913. The story centered around a true incident in which a poverty-stricken soldier, Woyzeck (Franzos misread the name in the poorly preserved manuscript), stabbed his mistress and was later executed. Büchner gathered the specific details and even some of Woyzeck's explicit verbal phrases from a report by the court-appointed physician who concluded that Woyzeck could stand trial.

Berg used the second edition of the play for his libretto, reducing the number of scenes from 26 to 15 but otherwise preserving most of the original dialogue. This reduction involved a reordering of the scenes into a coherent structure of three acts of five scenes each. Act One is expository, showing Wozzeck in a relationship to various environments and people in his life. In the developmental second act, Wozzeck gradually becomes aware of Marie's infidelity, and in Act Three comes the catastrophe of Marie's murder, Wozzeck's drowning, and the epilogue.

Musically, Wozzeck is in the same freely atonal style Berg had developed in the Three Orchestral Pieces, Op. 6, although there are many pseudo-tonal and tonal passages interspersed, almost always for dramatic effect. In order to reflect the unique character of the scenes, Berg felt it necessary to construct a separate, musically closed form for each one. This device does not seem to evoke the number operas of the past, but rather lends the work a very modern cohesion and concision that focus its grim, violent subject matter. Each scene is part of a larger multi-movement form that covers an entire act.

Act One, with its focus on the divergent aspects of Wozzeck's personality, needed a loosely constructed form. Its five scenes are set as five character pieces -- Suite, Rhapsody, Military March and Lullaby, Passacaglia, and Quasi-Rondo. The developmental Act Two called for a more dramatic and organic form; hence its Symphony-Sonata, Fantasy and Fugue, Largo, Scherzo, and Rondo con introduzione movements. In Act Three, the inevitability of the catastrophe and epilogue is characterized musically by six inventions on ostinato ideas -- inventions, respectively, on a theme, a note, a rhythm, a hexachord, a key, and on a regular eighth note figure. The fourth and fifth scenes are separated by an important interlude, which receives its own invention (thus there are six inventions rather than five).

Berg himself thought the opera to be very successful; the listener could be completely unaware of the complex web of musical and dramatic form while being completely absorbed by the human and social elements. Indeed, this has proven Wozzeck's most enduring quality; it stands as a landmark achievement in both music and music drama, and is one of the elite few among twentieth century operas to enjoy repertory status.

[Article taken from All Music Guide]

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What can I say about this opera? It's absolutely insane, but I love every minute of it. What do you guys think of this opera?


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

_Wozzeck_ is very powerful. It's sort of psychological in how it explores the adversarial relationship between Wozzeck and the rest of the world. The musical layout is unique and it's certainly interesting at an intellectual level, though I am not convinced it adds anything to the emotional power of a performance. Rather, as your post indicates, the "human and social elements" are so powerful, along with the music, that you can get swept away while unaware of the underlying structures. I also think it is an opera of its time; _Woyzeck_ by Büchner came from much earlier, but Berg's adaptation and music suit the post-First World War landscape of Europe so poignantly.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

It's a terrific, harrowing and fun listen. I had known about it through reading and college courses long before I actually heard it - then, wow!, what an experience. It's one opera I really want to see live someday. Having studied the score for a long time it simply amazes me how anyone can learn the parts. Dmitri Mitropoulos rehearsed it from memory - that's astonishing. His recording, the first, is still pretty potent but there are lots of mistakes in the singing and playing - the work was so difficult and new and everyone had trouble with it. Not so much anymore as several fine recordings nail it technically. Boulez, Barenboim, Metzmacher, Abaddo, Bohm....we're spoiled for riches.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

One commentator suggested that Wozzeck begins in the middle of the story. The third act is the actual beginning, a young boy experiencing childhood trauma and growing up doomed to repeat his father's abuse. That's an interesting observation.


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## composingmusic (Dec 16, 2021)

Indeed, a harrowing opera with lots of great beauty even in the grim nature of the story. The tension never lets up, not even for a moment, which makes it starkly different from Lulu. Another big difference from Lulu is the natural imagery found throughout the work – a sunset in a field, the drowning scene (with lots of wonderful water imagery). The harmony is truly extraordinary and moves between a highly chromatic and areas that are tantalizingly close to common practice tonality.


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## PeterKC (Dec 30, 2016)

I've tried too many times. I cannot invest in this distress and cacophony. Everyday life offers enough.
I may be a rube, but I prefer music to uplift me. I am happy for its fans.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

It's a bit like Peter Grimes.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

PeterKC said:


> I've tried too many times. I cannot invest in this distress and cacophony. Everyday life offers enough.
> I may be a rube, but I prefer music to uplift me. I am happy for its fans.


I feel the same way, although my feeling for its fans is more of a biwilderment than happiness.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Mandryka said:


> It's a bit like Peter Grimes.


Please elaborate.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

I love several different recordings of _Wozzeck_, but the one I'd take to the desert island is this one from Kegel:










I own two iterations of this Kegel recording, but the one pictured is the new 2022 DSD remaster that I bought via Tower Records Japan. It sounds amazing.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Neo Romanza said:


> Please elaborate.


They’ve both got a structure of scenes and orchestral interludes, Grimes and Wozzek are both outsiders in a claustrophobic community, led to suicide and let down by their so called friends and lovers, in both a prepubescent boy suffers. I don’t know which came first, but I bet there was some kind of cross fertilisation.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Mandryka said:


> They’ve both got a structure of scenes and orchestral interludes, Grimes and Wozzek are both outsiders in a claustrophobic community, led to suicide and let down by their so called friends and lovers, in both a prepubescent boy suffers. I don’t know which came first, but I bet there was some kind of cross fertilisation.


_Wozzeck_ came many years before _Peter Grimes_. _Wozzeck_ was finished in 1922 and _Peter Grimes_ in 1945. So, if anything, Britten was inspired by _Wozzeck_, which makes sense as he initially wanted to take lessons with him when he was younger, but was persuaded by many teachers that it would be a bad idea.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

TwoFlutesOneTrumpet said:


> I feel the same way, although my feeling for its fans is more of a biwilderment than happiness.


It’s like drinking Sunset rum, it’s very strong, it might not taste too nice and it burns a bit, but you end up drunk all the same.


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## PeterKC (Dec 30, 2016)

Op.123 said:


> It’s like drinking Sunset rum, it’s very strong, it might not taste too nice and it burns a bit, but you end up drunk all the same.


And never remember anything the next morning.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

I actually knew and loved the play before I got to know the opera. I read it over and over again to the point of obsession... I was really a weird kid.
What can I say? it's my absolute favorite 20th century opera and in my top 3 of all time favorites. The biggest marvel is how Berg organized the music, using the strictest forms (passacaglia, fugues, canons, music in retrogade, several Wagnerian Leitmotivs etc) and still managed to create the perfect synthesis of text and music, without any artificiality.

I agree about the perfect ending, which chills you to the bone. But what makes that ending so effective is the interlude that precedes it: a soaring lament in d minor (!) where Berg embraces all humanity's sorrow, not just Wozzeck and Marie's. It would be a fitting ending, but in contrast to its warm emotional outpour, the ice-cold last scene is even more bleak and hopeless.

I wonder why I love Wozzeck so much - and Lulu leaves me so cold. God knows I tried liking it, but I somehow can't get to the core of it. It's a much more cool and intellectual affair than the earlier work - or than other works by Berg like the 6 Orchesterstücke or the Violin Concerto.

As for recordings of Wozzeck - I find the 60's Böhm, with the greatest cast ever (DFD, Wunderlich, Lear, Stolze...) unbeatable. But Abbado (Grundheber, a superb Behrens) and Dohnanyi (Waechter, Silya!) are very good too.


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## composingmusic (Dec 16, 2021)

An interesting historical tidbit: did you know Manfred Gurlitt wrote an opera based around the same play, Woyzeck? Gurlitt's opera Wozzeck was premiered four months after Berg's, but Berg's is much better known. Here is a recording of Gurlitt's work:


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## composingmusic (Dec 16, 2021)

RobertJTh said:


> I wonder why I love Wozzeck so much - and Lulu leaves me so cold.


One thought I have on this is that Wozzeck keeps a state of heightened emotional tension throughout, and for me this is not the case in Lulu. The structural organization of Wozzeck is much more organic as well, and Lulu's is much more of a large-scale arc. Much of Lulu is incredible in my opinion, but there are sections that to me are less interesting and the music seems to go a bit grey. Nevertheless, Lulu is an incredible work even if it has its problems.


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## REP (Dec 8, 2011)

composingmusic said:


> An interesting historical tidbit: did you know Manfred Gurlitt wrote an opera based around the same play, Woyzeck? Gurlitt's opera Wozzeck was premiered four months after Berg's, but Berg's is much better known. Here is a recording of Gurlitt's work:


The same thing happened with _La boheme_, with both Puccini and Leoncavallo composing their versions at the same time. In that case, however, the situation caused a lengthy rift between the two composers.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

PeterKC said:


> I've tried too many times. I cannot invest in this distress and cacophony. Everyday life offers enough. I may be a rube, but I prefer music to uplift me. I am happy for its fans.





TwoFlutesOneTrumpet said:


> I feel the same way, although my feeling for its fans is more of a biwilderment than happiness.


_"There's no lock on that door. No one will bar the way. You simply have to walk through it."_


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

hammeredklavier said:


> _"There's no lock on that door. No one will bar the way. You simply have to walk through it."_


"For academics and sado-masochists" - yep, pretty much how I feel about it.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I first encountered Berg's _Wozzeck_ as an undergraduate. I had at the time been interested in classical music for some years already and had more recently begun to dip into more contemporary serious music, an interest that still inhabits me today some half century later. Taking a German class at the time, I came to know my professor had a deep interest in classical music, specificially German opera. When it came time to write a final paper on a topic of German interest, and having then recently been introduced to the Berg work by way of the Karl Böhm/Evelyn Lear/Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau recording (on Deutsche Grammophon) in the college library music stacks, an area of the university I was prone to haunt, I proposed a paper analyzing the script that Berg fashioned from the original play by Georg Büchner. Herr Gast enthusiastically approved the project.

I was never the strongest of German students. I enrolled in the course mainly to step up my facility with the language in order to better access the Cantatas of Bach and the Wagner operas. (And I was frustrated from several previous semesters in Spanish and French.) In any case, Herr Gast graded my paper rather favorably, returning it to me along with a copy of the very opera recording I had utilized in the library, this one the MONO version. 










Herr Gast told me he had an extra copy in his own music library and he wished I would accept it as a gift because of the joy I gave him in reading my paper. Talk about a boost to the ego. I carried on in the German language for some while afterwards but soon came back to earth, perhaps from relistening to the _Wozzeck_. The opera itself proves quite sobering. I still have that recording on my record shelf and I access it quite regularly, always with fine memories (habitually interrupted by the more haunting remembrance of how difficult that paper had actually been to write).

I retained my interest in Berg's music and specifically the _Wozzeck _well into graduate school where in my theatre studies literature courses I frequently encountered the Büchner play, including in one course where we did a deep reading and analysis of the script as in preparation for directing the work. I never did get to direct Büchner's _Woyzeck_, but a copy remains on my play script shelf alongside other favorite plays such as Ionesco's _Bald Soprano_, Sophocles's _Oedipus_, Racine's _Phèdre_, and Tennessee Williams's _Camino Real_. In other words, Woyzeck is one of the great plays. And to know it through the opera by Alban Berg is a further enhancement of its beauty and power.


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

SONNET CLV said:


> I first encountered Berg's _Wozzeck_ as an undergraduate. I had at the time been interested in classical music for some years already and had more recently begun to dip into more contemporary serious music, an interest that still inhabits me today some half century later. Taking a German class at the time, I came to know my professor had a deep interest in classical music, specificially German opera. When it came time to write a final paper on a topic of German interest, and having then recently been introduced to the Berg work by way of the Karl Böhm/Evelyn Lear/Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau recording (on Deutsche Grammophon) in the college library music stacks, an area of the university I was prone to haunt, I proposed a paper analyzing the script that Berg fashioned from the original play by Georg Büchner. Herr Gast enthusiastically approved the project.
> 
> I was never the strongest of German students. I enrolled in the course mainly to step up my facility with the language in order to better access the Cantatas of Bach and the Wagner operas. (And I was frustrated from several previous semesters in Spanish and French.) In any case, Herr Gast graded my paper rather favorably, returning it to me along with a copy of the very opera recording I had utilized in the library, this one the MONO version.
> 
> ...


What a wonderful story! Thanks for sharing.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Monsalvat said:


> What a wonderful story! Thanks for sharing.


Vielen Dank.
Now, I'm hungry for peas.


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## composingmusic (Dec 16, 2021)

Agreed, a wonderful story!


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Sorry if this is somewhat off topic.



PeterKC said:


> I've tried too many times. I cannot invest in this distress and cacophony. Everyday life offers enough.
> I may be a rube, but I prefer music to uplift me. I am happy for its fans.





TwoFlutesOneTrumpet said:


> I feel the same way, although my feeling for its fans is more of a biwilderment than happiness.


There have been several studies that have shown, that listening to sad, dark music, can actually lift one's spirits. 

Sad Music

The idea that listening to music of this sort will only serve to enhance the negative feelings of everyday life, seems to be the opposite effect that many people experience. The studies do not specifically focus on serial and atonal classical, but I would expect that, for people who do listen to this type of music, would experience the uplifting feelings.

I know for me, if I have a particularly bad, stressful day, the last thing I want to hear is any type of music, that is obvious about its uplifting attributes. It comes off to me, as being like an insincere person patting my back, and saying, "there, there". 

When I listen to music of this sort, I often have intense feeling of catharsis, and come out the other side feeling better.


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## PeterKC (Dec 30, 2016)

Simon Moon said:


> Sorry if this is somewhat off topic.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Not I. Never found that I had to go through the gloom, pain, or the static to find catharsis. But as they say, "Different horses, different courses."


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Simon Moon said:


> Sorry if this is somewhat off topic.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I personally listen to darker or more brooding music, because I love it. I love this kind of sound-world just like I love more jovial in mood music. There's room for all emotional temperatures in my own listening.


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## Lisztianwagner (2 mo ago)

Berg's _Wozzeck_ is absolutely a powerfully thrilling opera, so tense and somberly dramatic in its raw use of the dissonances and its tearing contrasts, so impressive in its frightening descriptions through music of violent, overwhelming emotions as well as alienation, ghostly hallucinations and neurosis, but at the same time so mesmerizing and hauntingly beautiful that completely captures; it definitely gives the impression to manage to extract and bring to light what is deeply hidden in the unconscious. It shows a very brilliant combination of atonal, tonal (for example in the third scene, Marie's lullaby) and dodecaphonic (in the four scene, the dialogue between the Doctor and Wozzeck) textures to depict the different events and moods, with a touching expressive force. When I listened to this opera for the first time, it blew me away, because, as I came from a Romantic/Late Romantic background, I hadn't heard such raw, dissonant music before that; though contemporarily, I found it extremely fascinating for the thrilling atmospheres it evoked.
Abbado/Wiener Philharmoniker is my favourite recording, but I also like Maderna/Hamburg Philharmonic very much.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Lisztianwagner said:


> Berg's _Wozzeck_ is absolutely a powerfully thrilling opera, so tense and somberly dramatic in its raw use of the dissonances and its tearing contrasts, so impressive in its frightening descriptions through music of violent, overwhelming emotions as well as alienation, ghostly hallucinations and neurosis, but at the same time so mesmerizing and hauntingly beautiful that completely captures; it definitely gives the impression to manage to extract and bring to light what is deeply hidden in the unconscious. It shows a very brilliant combination of atonal, tonal (for example in the third scene, Marie's lullaby) and dodecaphonic (in the four scene, the dialogue between the Doctor and Wozzeck) textures to depict the different events and moods, with a touching expressive force. When I listened to this opera for the first time, it blew me away, because, as I came from a Romantic/Late Romantic background, I hadn't heard such raw, dissonant music before that; though contemporarily, I found it extremely fascinating for the thrilling atmospheres it evoked.
> Abbado/Wiener Philharmoniker is my favourite recording, but I also like Maderna/Hamburg Philharmonic very much.


Absolutely agree. If you ever get the chance, check out the Kegel and Boulez performances.

The recordings in question:


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

Simon Moon said:


> Sorry if this is somewhat off topic.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Some of my most favorite music is sad and dark (example: Shostakovich string quartets). I dislike Wozzek not because it is dark and sad but because it contains dull music.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

TwoFlutesOneTrumpet said:


> ... I dislike Wozzek not because it is dark and sad but _*because it contains dull music*_.


 [italics SONNET CLV]

Woah! I must have missed that part. I'll have to listen to the opera again, a little more closely this time than I did the first twelve dozen times.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

SONNET CLV said:


> [italics SONNET CLV]
> 
> Woah! I must have missed that part. I'll have to listen to the opera again, a little more closely this time than I did the first twelve dozen times.


Some people just don't like music that doesn't fit comfortably into whatever box they have built up in their mind for it. Berg's _Wozzeck_ is a masterpiece no matter what anyone says negatively about it.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

It's a seminal work of the period, and one of the few 20th century operas firmly in the performance repertoire. As with many listeners, I found it gripping from the first time I listened to it, even though generally I've never liked opera. It was also one of my important stepping stones into modern repertoire.

I had initially read about _Wozzeck_, and when I saw the Kegel recording on special I didn't hesitate to buy it. This was before internet, and I even made the effort to find and borrow the libretto. Later, I watched the famous film version by Klaus Kinski and also the one by Janos Szasz, which gave it a more contemporary setting.

I've changed as a listener since that time, now I find it too heavy going for my taste. That doesn't in any way dim Berg's achievement, because if anything, this story is even more relevant now than a century ago.

The society Berg was living in had been brought to the brink. Poverty, depression, violence, abuse of trust, bullying, exploitation and alienation are among the themes he explored. Operagoers walking to that premiere in 1925 probably passed by war veterans who had missing limbs begging in the street. It's topicality probably didn't go unnoticed by Brecht and Weill, and it provided inspiration for not only Britten as mentioned, but also others like Gershwin and Shostakovich.


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## Lisztianwagner (2 mo ago)

Neo Romanza said:


> Absolutely agree. If you ever get the chance, check out the Kegel and Boulez performances.
> 
> The recordings in question:


I forgot to mention Sinopoli/Staatskapelle Dresden among my favourite recordings. 
Thank you for these suggestions anyway, I'll look for them!


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Lisztianwagner said:


> I forgot to mention Sinopoli/Staatskapelle Dresden among my favourite recordings.
> Thank you for these suggestions anyway, I'll look for them!


Sinopoli recorded _Wozzeck_? Are you sure? I believe he only recorded the fragments that were arranged from this opera.


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## Lisztianwagner (2 mo ago)

Neo Romanza said:


> Sinopoli recorded _Wozzeck_? Are you sure? I believe he only recorded the fragments that were arranged from this opera.


Indeed I referred to the fragments, I thought they could be counted along with the whole opera recordings. I'm sorry I had to be clearer before.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Lisztianwagner said:


> Indeed I referred to the fragments, I thought they could be counted along with the whole opera recordings. I'm sorry I had to be clearer before.


Actually, you didn't mention the fragments in your initial post, so that's why I was confused. Imagine if Sinopoli actually recorded the entire opera? Wow! Now _that_ would be a reference recording right there.


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## Lisztianwagner (2 mo ago)

Neo Romanza said:


> Actually, you didn't mention the fragments in your initial post, so that's why I was confused. Imagine if Sinopoli actually recorded the entire opera? Wow! Now _that_ would be a reference recording right there.


I agree, that could have been astounding, he was such a brilliant interpreter of the Second Viennese School!


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Simon Moon said:


> Sorry if this is somewhat off topic.
> 
> 
> 
> ...





PeterKC said:


> Not I. Never found that I had to go through the gloom, pain, or the static to find catharsis. But as they say, "Different horses, different courses."





Neo Romanza said:


> I personally listen to darker or more brooding music, because I love it. I love this kind of sound-world just like I love more jovial in mood music. There's room for all emotional temperatures in my own listening.





TwoFlutesOneTrumpet said:


> Some of my most favorite music is sad and dark (example: Shostakovich string quartets). I dislike Wozzek not because it is dark and sad but because it contains dull music.


Not to digress too much, but I read some time ago that in popular music, sad songs tend to outsell happy ones. I'm not sure if it's exactly the same in classical, but sad music can hit the listener in a special spot. They validate what you're going through, express emotions which you can't put words to easily or find it hard to discuss with others. It could be said that the likes of Edith Piaf, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone and Ray Charles built their careers on sad songs. I'm pretty sure there are more recent examples. Elton John put it well in _Sad Songs_:

_If someone else is suffering enough oh to write it down
When every single word makes sense
Then it's easier to have those songs around
The kick inside is in the line that finally gets to you
And it feels so good to hurt so bad
And suffer just enough to sing the blues_


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)




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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

Love Wozzeck but it's a work I can't listen to very much: too bleak. I do really appreciate how it's both harrowing but also with a pitch-black sense of dark humor. Berg's music is as rich as any atonal works I've ever ever heard, and makes me think that if more atonal works were like this I'd like the approach more than I tend to.


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

Sid James said:


> Not to digress too much, but I read some time ago that in popular music, sad songs tend to outsell happy ones. I'm not sure if it's exactly the same in classical, but sad music can hit the listener in a special spot. They validate what you're going through, express emotions which you can't put words to easily or find it hard to discuss with others. It could be said that the likes of Edith Piaf, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone and Ray Charles built their careers on sad songs. *I'm pretty sure there are more recent examples. *


Probably the most famous recent example is Adele. One example:


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I don't normally listen to operas in English unless that is how they were written but I wondered if having a language I understand in an opera written largely in sprechgesang might bring come with benefits. This one turns out to be a pretty good performance (IMO) and makes a nice change to (as well as throwing some extra light on) the Abbado that is the only other recording I have. 











Meanwhile, I'm looking for another Wozzeck. I note Neo Romanza's two recommendations and have also seen praise in this thread for Bohm's classic. Does anyone have a take on Dohnanyi's recording?


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

Enthusiast said:


> I don't normally listen to operas in English unless that is how they were written but I wondered if having a language I understand in an opera written largely in sprechgesang might bring come with benefits. This one turns out to be a pretty good performance (IMO) and makes a nice change to (as well as throwing some extra light on) the Abbado that is the only other recording I have.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I'd second Böhm's recording, and add that Barenboim's recording is good also (but with the same Wozzeck as Abbado's recording). I didn't even know Dohnányi had recorded it!


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Monsalvat said:


> I'd second Böhm's recording, and add that Barenboim's recording is good also (but with the same Wozzeck as Abbado's recording). I didn't even know Dohnányi had recorded it!


Dohnányi's _Wozzeck_ is great!


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Eva Yojimbo said:


> Probably the most famous recent example is Adele. One example...


Yeah, that makes sense. While I watched that video, a suggestion for Lana Del Rey came up, who's definitely in this category. Nick Cave is another, although he's been around for ages.



Enthusiast said:


> I don't normally listen to operas in English unless that is how they were written but I wondered if having a language I understand in an opera written largely in sprechgesang might bring come with benefits. This one turns out to be a pretty good performance (IMO) and makes a nice change to (as well as throwing some extra light on) the Abbado that is the only other recording I have.


That's a good idea, as well as watching a video of the opera with subtitles. I've found it gripping without ever having needed to watch it, but as I said I've seen a couple of film versions (Werner Herzog's one is a classic).

Come to think of it, _Wozzeck_ is not far from verismo operas, which might explain its popularity. The action is non stop, it's relatively short, and there is the same sort of psychological rawness. It's got the same sense of reality, probably more since there are no real heroes or villains. Added to that is a cinematic quality (e.g. fast cuts from one scene to another) and the underlying messages about oppression and injustice. It's not an overtly political opera, but given the subject matter and it's treatment, Berg's social conscience isn't hard to detect.


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## Lisztianwagner (2 mo ago)

Enthusiast said:


> I don't normally listen to operas in English unless that is how they were written but I wondered if having a language I understand in an opera written largely in sprechgesang might bring come with benefits. This one turns out to be a pretty good performance (IMO) and makes a nice change to (as well as throwing some extra light on) the Abbado that is the only other recording I have.


I didn't know there was an English version of Wozzeck! I wonder what it is like; the musical effects of those languages are definitely different, though English and German have common roots and some similar sounds.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Lisztianwagner said:


> I didn't know there was an English version of Wozzeck! I wonder what it is like; the musical effects of those languages are definitely different, though English and German have common roots and some similar sounds.


Chandos have quite a series of operas in English. Their Wozzeck doesn't sound German or (more importantly) as if it is trying to replicate German rhythms and patterns. But it does seem to work and the words do come over very clearly. It's not ideal but as an additional version is well worth considering for non-German speakers.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Enthusiast said:


> I don't normally listen to operas in English unless that is how they were written but I wondered if having a language I understand in an opera written largely in sprechgesang might bring come with benefits.


From what I've seen, some, in Wagner and others, have aversion to German, for this reason:




It makes me want to shout _*"Wozzeck!"*_ in a harsh tone like the German-speaking guy does in the video.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^ I remember reading that Berg changed the original title, from Woyzeck to Wozzeck, because the latter sounds more harsh.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Sid James said:


> ^ I remember reading that Berg changed the original title, from Woyzeck to Wozzeck, because the latter sounds more harsh.


No, the play was known as Wozzeck when Berg wrote the opera - because of an error by the editor of Büchner's hardly readable manuscript. The correct name only emerged in 1921.


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