BY FRED KIRSHNIT [NY Sun, 23 December 2005]

Alban Berg realized that he and his mentor Arnold Schonberg were in the process of revolutionizing music, and so, when he came to write "Wozzeck," he clung steadfastly to the late 19th-century Romantic tradition still holding sway in the first quarter of the 20th, incorporating many devices from the most beloved operas. This organization creates grounding for the ear in an otherwise phantasmagoric musical world.