Album

A leader of the avant-garde, most celebrated for his groundbreaking Sinfonia (1968), Luciano Berio is presented in a much different light on this album of his appealing orchestrations of Baroque and Classical works, vividly performed by Riccardo Chailly and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. These colorful transcriptions and reworkings of pieces and fragments by Purcell, Bach, Boccherini, Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms will, in most cases, attract listeners for their surprising accessibility and clarity. Most interesting and gratifying is Berio's concerto arrangement of Brahms' Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 120, which clarinetist Fausto Ghiazza performs with suppleness and nuanced expression. Berio's arrangement is quite Brahmsian in its rich Romantic timbres and layered doublings of sections. Yet there are some experimental explorations, such as the Variations on Papageno's Aria, which, in its weird fragmentation, amounts to a theoretical analysis of Mozart's theme; and the strange breakdowns of harmony and melody that occur at the end of Bach's unfinished Contrapunctus XIX from The Art of the Fugue and the Rendering of Schubert's sketches for his last symphony in D major illustrate their incompleteness most strikingly. How seriously anyone should take Berio's transcriptions is open to debate, but they offer fascinating glimpses into his probing intellect and show him as one of the most imaginative composers of the mid-twentieth century.

© Blair Sanderson, All Music Guide

CD 1
Luciano Berio Composer Purcell, Hornpipe ('The Modification and Instrumentation of a Famous Hornpipe as a Merry and Altogether Sincere Homage to Uncle Alfred') Work Riccardo Chailly Conductor, Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra Milan Orchestra
1	Purcell, Hornpipe ('The Modification and Instrumentation of a Famous Hornpipe as a Merry and Altogether Sincere Homage to Uncle Alfred')	1:03			$0.49
Johann Sebastian Bach Composer Art of the Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge), BWV1080...Part 1: 14 Fugues (Contrapuncti) Work Riccardo Chailly Conductor, Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra Milan Orchestra
2	Contrapunctus 14 ('Fuga a 3 Soggetti'; unfinished)	8:34			$1.49
Luciano Berio Composer Boccherini, Ritirata notturna di madrid Work Riccardo Chailly Conductor, Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra Milan Orchestra
3	Boccherini, Ritirata notturna di madrid	6:28			$0.99
Luciano Berio Composer Variazioni 'Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen', for 2 bassett horns and strings Work Riccardo Chailly Conductor, Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra Milan Orchestra
4	Variazioni 'Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen', for 2 bassett horns and strings	2:34			$0.99
Luciano Berio Composer Schubert-Berio: Rendering (based on fragments of symphonies) Work 32:46 Riccardo Chailly Conductor, Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra Milan Orchestra
5	1.Allegro	9:47			$1.49
6	2.Andante	11:06			$1.99
7	3.Allegro	11:53			$1.99
Johannes Brahms Composer Clarinet (or Viola) Sonata in F-, Op.120, No.1 Work 22:48 Fausto Ghiazza Clarinet, Riccardo Chailly Conductor, Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra Milan Orchestra
8	1.Allegro appassionato	7:49			$1.49
9	2.Andante un poco adagio	5:27			$0.99
10	3.Allegretto grazioso	4:18			$0.99
11	4.Vivace	5:14			$0.99