Salzburg Opening Concert 2011 [Blu-ray]

An interesting program that far exceeded my expectations
Two Alban Berg works, followed by Mahler's early cantata "Das Klagende Lied".

This Salzburg Festival program begins with Berg's "Lulu Suite", a five movement work that was originally designed to drum up interest in Berg's second and longer opera, "Lulu". Needless to say, Berg's music plays right into the Vienna Philharmonic's 'wheel house' - perhaps even more so than Mahler. This is an absolutely stunning performance, with the Wiener's natural, hyper-romantic tendencies disguising their equally accomplished virtuosity. They make Berg's music sound both beautiful and logical. Looking rather sexy with slightly 'deranged' facial gestures and wild eyes, Anna Prohaska (soprano) would make a terrific Lulu in the full length opera. Here, in the suite version, the soprano has to briefly play two roles. In the fourth movement she sings the brief yet wildly taxing "Lied der Lulu" (Lulu's song), in which Lulu delivers here incantation - her personal Credo, if you will - as to what...

Interesting programming from Boulez.
A recent Boulez Mahler release featured an early work, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, with his 10th. Symphony Adagio.(his last work), an imaginative juxtaposition.

This 2011 Salzburg concert presents an even earlier work, Das Klagende Lied, with two of Alban Berg's, Lulu Suite, and Der Wein (wine). Berg was of course, a disciple of Mahler's, and one can certainly hypothesize that, had Mahler lived longer, his music was heading in the direction of the territory occupied by Berg.

I am no Berg expert, and bow to B. Guerrero's fine review of the two works offered here. Despite my limited history with Berg's works, I did find them extremely well done, the VPO playing exquisitely as usual, and great singing from Prohaska and Roschmann make me want to get to know this music better.

The Mahler Klagende Lied, is really a cantata, not a song cycle. Its translation is "Sorrowful Song", Originally in three movements, Mahler condensed it to two, and modified the...



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