Anton WEBERN: Sinfonía, op. 21; Cantatas nos 1 y 2; 3 canciones; Das Augenlicht, op. 26; Variaciones, op. 30; 5 piezas para orquesta (1913). Deutsche Grammophon 447765-2 [58'48"]

Pierre Boulez has been conducting this music for 40 years, and his interpretations have evolved from the youthful Domaine Musical recordings, through the incisive CBS readings of 1967-72 (reissued by Sony Classical and listed above), to this present «late» style. As MEO noted in connection with one of the earlier discs in the series (3/96), Boulez «encourages the Berlin Philharmonic to play with great tonal beauty», and the recordings are «warm as well as clean». Tempos are generally broader than they were 30 years ago, and forms are outlined more expansively: for example, the many rallentandos in the third movement of Op. 29 are emphasized as never before. There are moments of high drama - the sudden outburst from the solo horn in the second movement of Op. 21 (Variation 2), the representations of thunder and lightning in the first movement of Op. 29 - but these are balanced by an eloquent spaciousness and refinement, as with the glowing canonic lines in the first movement of Op. 21.

Only in Boulez's account of the Variations, Op. 30 did I feel that the emphasis on lyric inwardness risked an excess of decorum, the raw contrasts of texture and mood so strong in the CBS version sacrificed to an overall blend that deprives Webern of some of his power to shock. That power is explosively present in the Five Pieces from 1913, especially in the astonishing No. 3, and also, less aggressively, in the whispered Sprechgesang of the Drei Lieder. But the other side of Webern, the sheer tenderness of his lyrical imagination, is conveyed here with particular distinction by the solo singing of Christiane Oelze and Gerald Finley, and the beautifully integrated choral sound of the BBC Singers, superbly accurate in the two cantatas and Das Augenlicht. Not even the excellent Finley can manage all the dynamic refinements called for in the score of Op. 31 but, with Boulez and the Berlin players at their most persuasive, the Cantata No. 2 forms a fitting climax to a distinguished disc.