Alban Berg (1885–1935)

Every pianist should attmept this, and is improved for just reading through it. I think this is the most difficult composition I ever learned from heart. I dare say a learned the notes properly, but having made it into music, is debatable.

It is nominally in the "key of b-minor" but other than the initial and terminal cadences (funky V9 to i), there are no other clear-cut definitions of a key. Typical of this period (early 20th century), there are many familiar chords, but used in a new show more context.

It is dedicated to his teacher Schoenberg, and there are many allusions to the master's teachings on harmony, and in fact a quotation from the "Chamber symphony."

The sense of key is continually obscured by "fake-out" or "surprise" "resolutions" of familiar discordances. Debussy-like passages of "unresolved ninths," whole-tone harmonies, quartal chords (these, actually more a nod to Schoenberg) keep the sense of key "in suspense." This whole technique, likely imported from contact with Schoenberg, who talked about "suspended tonality" in his contemporaneous treatise "Theory of Harmony" (German: Harmonielehre).

Even if, like me, you don't pull it off performance-wise, it is an absorbing "as-it-happened" lesson on the "transitional" phase of the harmonic development of early 20th century European classical music,. show less

A really "dry" recording from the 1960's of these intense pieces but worth persevering with because the performances are outstandingly good: better than some CD recordings of these pieces that I have heard.

Born in Vienna on February 7, 1885, Berg became Schoenberg's student; the disciple became a friend, and the friendship was then extended to include Anton Webern. Berg wrote music for the poetry he carried in himself. His art is not just a development based on a certain technical facility and virtuosity in composition, as in Hindemith's case. His literary sense is always perceptible in his works. It is apparent in his choice of texts for his Lieder and in the mastery he displays in adapting show more the texts of his operas. He was intuitive, but forced himself to follow a pitiless discipline-a result of meeting Schoenberg. In consequence, the number of his works is restricted. He produced slowly, except his last completed composition, the Violin Concerto, which he composed in six weeks. Never did he accept the easiest solution; he sought the exact solution, the most difficult to achieve. As well and clearly as did Proust, he recognized his indebtedness to Baudelaire. For him the secret of form was heavier than the secret of death, and the concert aria Der Wein, composed on three poems from the Fleurs du Mal, is not only a prologue to his unfinished opera Lulu but also the most striking evidence of an elective affinity. show less

The third great composer of the Viennese triad of Schoenberg, Webern & Berg. Born in Vienna on February 7, 1885, Berg became Schoenberg's student; the disciple became a friend, and the friendship was then extended to include Anton Webern. The cohesion of this group, today famous, is due in great part to that friendship, to the qualities of heart, and to the faithfulness and unselfishness that distinguished the three artists. Their devoted friendship was to them no less important than their show more devotion to purity. It furnished for each of them a solid pillar that helped them keep intact their faith in the ars nova they created amid almost general hostility, until the day when their worth became evident. Their literary tastes united them as well, a taste for subtlety which put them at odds with all powerful academic groups. At the same time their yearning for individual freedom incited them to exasperation with their social environment, which threatened to exterminate or overwhelm the individual, and tended to make man a machine, a robot, a passive being subjugated to the state. Expressionism is in part the outcome of that revolt against the mounting tide of collectivism.

Berg's penchant for transforming an exterior aspect by integrating it with his own concepts, a penchant that defines his affinity with the nineteenth century, could only be exercised in terms of exaggeration: he magnified extreme traits, which destroyed the bourgeois propriety of that century's aesthetic. The erotic motive principle that animates Tristan exceeds the limits of individual psychology; it is amplified to the point of chaos. This threat of chaos inherent in Berg's personality is frightening, and has been from the start.

Berg wrote only about fifteen works, but they are almost all of exceptional value. Like Paul Dukas he devoted the utmost care to the smallest detail, and gave much thought to his over-all plan. Again like Dukas, he thought that "One should know a great deal and make music with what one does not know."

The works of his first period are still completely tonal and clearly show the chromaticism of Tristan. These are the Piano Sonata, Op. 1 ( 1909); Four Melodies, Op. 2; String Quartet, Op. 3 ( 1910), and Sieben frühe Lieder, written in 1907 but not orchestrated and published until much later (in 1928). Then, in a very brief transition period during which he assimilated Schoenberg's language, Berg produced Three Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 5, in 1913, and in 1914 Three Orchestral Pieces, Op. 6.

Having reached the height of his powers, Berg proceeded to compose a series of masterful works: the opera Wozzeck, Op. 7 ( 1917- 1922); the Chamber Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Thirteen Wind Instruments ( 1925); the Lyric Suite for String Quartet ( 1927); a concert aria, Der Wein ( 1929); a second opera, Lulu (which appeared in 1937); and very shortly before his death, a Concerto for Violin and Orchestra ( 1935). show less