It is only two years since Anne Sofie von Otter included Berg’s Seven Early Songs on a recital disc that coupled them with Strauss and Korngold (DG, 6/94), a programme glowing in the sunset of German romanticism. Making comparisons between that and DG’s new recording of the orchestral version has been a test of self-discipline. There is so much to delight in the earlier performance – the affectionate little tugs at the rhythm in “Im Zimmer” are near perfection – that it is difficult to tear oneself away, whatever the different pleasures to be encountered here. Singing with orchestra, von Otter naturally works on a larger scale. The words are more firmly bound into the vocal line; there is not the detailed give-and-take that was possible with a pianist. But the outline of her interpretation remains that of a true Lieder singer, always lighting upon unexpected subtleties of colour and emphasis to inflect the poetry.
In all this Abbado is a partner of equal importance. Von Otter needs careful accompaniment in the concert-hall if she is to dominate an orchestra of Berg’s size and Abbado, in co-operation with DG’s technical team, has produced a balance that never drowns her, but still sounds fairly natural. The brass is kept down and the music admits fewer Wagnerian aspirations than usual. The other leading partnership on record is Pierre Boulez and Jessye Norman, who have recorded both the Berg vocal works included here, though on separate discs. In Der Wein, Berg’s late concert aria, the honours are more or less even. Norman’s extra vocal weight and panache pay dividends, but von Otter and Abbado are happier catching the lilt of the jazz rhythms. In the Seven Early Songs the new recording seems to me the front-runner. Von Otter phrases in sentences where Norman bumps along syllable by syllable and there is a refined quality to the performance that other recordings do not equal. Are von Otter and Abbado too cool? Perhaps, but in the final song, “Sommertage”, they throw caution to the winds and end the cycle on a passionate high.
In the Three Orchestral Pieces one of Abbado’s main rivals is his younger self. His 1970s LSO recording has long been one of the standard versions of this work (alongside Boulez again) and the opportunity to see how his thoughts have developed since then brings more surprises than one might have expected. In short, his outlook is progressing from the vertical to the horizontal, from Italianate to Germanic. No doubt the influence of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra has much to do with this and their marvellously eloquent playing is one of the prime attractions of the disc. In their company Abbado finds more depth and complexity in the music than before, although that does mean that the March loses the Bartokian attack and driving rhythms that made his first version so exciting. The earlier performance, now a mid-price reissue, is coupled with Margaret Price in ravishing readings of the Altenberg Lieder and Lulu Suite. On this new disc von Otter makes an equally enticing vocal attraction, though prospective purchasers will have noted that the playing-time is under 50 minutes. Quality, not quantity, was after all a founding rule of the Second Viennese School.'