Das Alban Berg Ensemble Wien hat erstmals ein Album aufgenommen - und darauf Werke von Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schönberg und Richard Strauss versammelt.

Vier Töne erhielten eine ganz besondere Bedeutung in der Konstruktion von Alban Bergs "Lyrischer Suite" für Streichquartett. Ein Drama in sechs Sätzen. A und B und H und F. Die Initialen der beiden Liebenden. Dieses kleine Denkmal einer geheimnisvollen Affäre? Ein Zufallsfund überführte die beiden Liebenden erst fünfzig Jahre später. Alban Berg und Hanna Fuchs. Die Geschichte einer tragischen Liebe, entschlüsselt in einer Taschenpartitur. Das heutige ZOOM erzählt von einer Affäre, die Musikgeschichte schrieb.

De Oostenrijkse Alban Berg was één van de drie componisten uit de Tweede Weense School. Wenen was tevens decor voor een zeer tekenend moment in zijn leven: in de Gouden Zaal van de Musikverein was Berg aanleiding voor het bizarre 'Skandalkonzert'. Maar het echte rampjaar vond pas jaren later plaats. In 1935 kwam zijn muziek op de lijst van 'Entartete Musik' te staan en moest hij zich afzonderen. Daar, tijdens die afzondering in de bergen, bleek de natuur een dodelijke werking te hebben...

In de podcast 'Klassieke Mini-Mysteries', een afgeleide van de grotere podcastserie 'Klassieke Mysteries', bespreken Ab Nieuwdorp en Rebecca van der Weijde in recordtempo vreemde en bizarre verhalen uit de klassieke muziekgeschiedenis.

Guide d'écoute de l'opéra "Wozzeck" d'Alban Berg, une nouvelle production du Festival d'Aix 2020.

Extraits musicaux de l'opéra "Wozzeck" - Version Christoph Dohnanyi (Decca - Universal)
Avec l'aimable autorisation d'Universal.

Réalisation : Louis Geisler et Guillaume Mariotti.

This coffee break we take a listen to Alban Berg's startling opera Wozzeck, called an "emblematic opera of the 1920s, a harbinger of the unease and aching void of the 20thcentury, haunted by war and death, the misery of the human condition set to a music," as per Opera Online. We also listen to the works of Anton Webern and contrast his style and impact versus Alban Berg's.
Here is a clip from Alban Berg's Wozzeck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8WeX8MrThU

Donald Macleod surveys the life, loves and music of Alban Berg.

As a youngster, Berg loved the music of Brahms, Mahler and Richard Strauss and composed 34 songs as a teenager. Maybe this would have been the end of it, but his brother Charly secretly took some of these songs to show a music professor in the city - Arnold Schoenberg. This week’s episode begins with a look at their stimulating but often turbulent relationship. Donald tells the story of Berg’s long marriage to Viennese beauty Helene Nahowski, and the secrets beneath the surface, including Berg’s love affair with Hanna Fuchs-Robettin which permeated his compositions. We hear about how his time in army training led to physical collapse, from which he emerged to write a brutal opera – Wozzeck. Finally, Berg’s premature death from an infected insect sting, and how his wife Helene set up a shrine to his memory, forbidding the completion of Lulu, the unfinished opera he left behind.

Music featured:
Über den Bergen – Over the Mountains
Lied de Lulu from Lulu Suite
Still is where the graves are (Schattenleben)
Where the Laburnum Grows
Passacaglia (arr. Von Borries)
Piano Sonata, Op 1
String Quartet, Op 3
Vielgeliebte schone Frau
Seven Early Songs
Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op 5
Five Altenberg Lieder
Chamber Concerto for piano, violin and 13 wind instruments (Rondo)
Ferne Lieder – Distant Songs
Wozzeck: Act 3, Tanzt Alle
Wozzeck: Act 3, Scenes 4 and 5
Three Pieces for Orchestra
Wein, Weib und Gesang (Waltz Op 333 by Johann Strauss II, trans. Berg)
Chamber Concerto for piano, violin and 13 wind instruments (Adagio)
Lyric Suite
Der Wein
Schliesse mir die Augen beide (1907)
Schliesse mir die Augen beide (1925)
Lulu Suite: Variationen
Violin Concerto

Presented by Donald Macleod
Produced by Rosie Boulton for BBC Wales

For full tracklistings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Alban Berg https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00047vv

And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z

This week, Dacia Clay has the Dover String Quartet; violinists, Joel Link, Bryan Lee; violist, Milena Pajaro-Van De Stadt; and cellist, Camden Shaw into the studio. They listen to a recording of their own concert from the night before when they played Alban Berg‘s String Quartet Opus 3 for the Chamber Music Houston series.  They introduce Dacia to the twelve-tone system of music composition, and she lives to talk about it. They also discuss serialism, Schoenberg, over-protective fathers, motifs, and that Berg is pronounced like “bare-g”, not burg.  

 

  Music in this episode:

• Alban Berg String Quartet Op. 3  from a live performance recorded at Stude Concert Hall, Rice University, Shepherd School of Music for Chamber Music Houston 

Audio production by Todd “One Todd to rule them all” Hulslander, editing by Mark DiClaudio and mind expansion by Dacia Clay.