Presto Recordings of the Year
Finalist 2018

Wiener Philharmoniker, Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor
Vladimir Jurowski (conductor), William Kentridge (director)

Matthias Goerne (Wozzeck), Asmik Grigorian (Marie), John Daszak, (Tambourmajor), Mauro Peter (Andres), Gerhard Siegel (Hauptmann), Jens Larsen (Doktor), Frances Pappas (Margret), Tobias Schabel (Erster Handwerksbursche), Huw Montague Rendall (Zweiter Handwerksbursche), Heinz Göhrig (Narr)

"[Goerne] gives a masterly portrayal of a simple man whose life is destroyed by things he can do nothing about…Grigorian’s Marie offers a similar masterclass in how to truly sing her role, avoiding cod-expressionist yowling while delivering superlative acting…The Vienna Philharmonic plays for Vladimir Jurowski with a lustrous clarity that some might find too sumptuous for such a bleak work. A different viewpoint (shared by me) would be that Bern, a true son of Vienna, grew up with this kind of orchestral sound, to which his score was a ground-breaking modernist tribute." - BBC Music Magazine, November 2018.