This is the 8th installment of the internationally acclaimed Michael Gielen Edition, dedicated to the Second Viennese School (Schönberg, Berg, Webern). It consists mainly of...

This is the 8th installment of the internationally acclaimed Michael Gielen Edition, dedicated to the Second Viennese School (Schönberg, Berg, Webern). It consists mainly of first releases. Austrian conductor Michael Gielen was a champion of contemporary music both in the opera and concert repertoires. He conducted many premieres during his career. He has held appointments at the Royal Swedish Opera, the Netherlands Opera, the Frankfurt Opera, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, which he has remained closely associated with since the end of his appointment in 1999.

-----

REVIEW:

The Gurre-lieder is a superb, almost magical-sounding performance. Gielen had the wisdom to use a lyric tenor, Robert Dean Smith, rather than a stentorian one to sing Waldemar, and an excellent soprano to sing Tove. Where he differed from most of his predecessors was in his choice of Yvonne Naef, a rich-toned contralto whose voice extends up to a high B, to sing the Wood-Dove in place of the usual light mezzo.

Gielen’s Die glückliche Hand is a famous recording that is also quite excellent, but for those who haven’t heard them his performance of the 5 Orchestral Pieces is just as intense and detailed.

– Arts Music Lounge