CD:
Gramophone Award 2017 for „Wozzeck“

The Accentus Music DVD and Blu-ray production wins the prestigious award in the “opera” category.

The soldier Wozzeck (Christian Gerhaher) flits through a world that he is unable to decipher. The doctor torments him with absurd medical experiments; the captain humiliates and ridicules him. And Wozzeck’s lover, Marie (Gun-Brit Barkmin), with whom he has a child, cuckolds him with the drum major. Wozzeck becomes a murderer, stabbing Marie to death. Georg Büchner’s drama fragment, on which Alban Berg based his first opera, is an unflinching case study of social injustice and human suffering. But it is also a grotesque piece that thrives on exaggeration – and in which only a fine line separates the unfathomable from the ridiculous. Accordingly, director Andreas Homoki forgoes all realism.

His nightmarishly radical production is inspired by puppet theatre. Christian Gerhaher’s role début as Wozzeck can only be described as sensational: his capacity for vocal and dramatic subtlety is simply breath-taking. At the rostrum of the Philharmonia Zurich, Fabio Luisi explores both the expressionistic and the more intimate aspects, reminiscent of chamber music, in Berg’s seminal score.

This award is the third in the year 2017, following the production’s wins at the International Classical Music Awards and the BBC Music Magazine Award in April.
Says Gramophone Magazine: “‘This is a finely honed production that follows its premise to an absurdist conclusion with slick theatricality and dispassionate zeal…” You can read the magazine’s review here: https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/berg-wozzeck-8