Alban Berg - Violin Concerto (1935)

Composer: Alban Maria Johannes Berg (February 9, 1885 – December 24, 1935)
Violinist: Itzhak Perlman
Orchestra: Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa

00:00 I - Andante (4:23 Allegretto)
11:00 II - Allegro (17:53 Adagio)

Score written at actual pitch.

[cobblestonegenerator]

Gotta love Berg. He fully embraced the 12 system without letting it make his music devoid of musical creativity. While i understand what Schoenberg and other die hard serialists were going for, Berg is one of the few whose music i actually listen to on a frequent basis. So good.

[NovicebutPassionate]

"The concerto is in two sections, with two movements in each part. The first section portrays Manon Gropius alive; the second, her illness, death, and the passage of her soul. (Manon died of polio at age eighteen. She was the daughter of Alma Mahler Gropius. The family was close to Berg and his wife.) Berg has indicated by means of his expression markings in the score the qualities of character he wishes to depict.

The First Movement begins with an introduction of gentle arpeggios answering back and forth between harp and solo violin, which critic Joseph Magil has linked to the girl's breathing: inhalation, exhalation. The movement proper starts with a solo double bass (measure 11), quietly accompanied in G minor; the violinist's answering rising arpeggio is an exact statement of Berg's basic twelve-tone row starting m.15 (rising from low G to high F) which at m. 24 is heard again, starting hight G, but now descending and inverted, after the cellos have repeated the double bass theme (starting m. 21). Such symmetrical statements and answers are typical of the concerto as a whole. After a 'delicate' flute figure at m. 28 (delicato), the soloist introduces a second theme, in triplets, marked un poco grazioso (m. 38). Increasingly lively figuration leads to a restatement of the 'double bass theme' of m. 11 by the solo violin at m. 84. The return of Manon's arpeggio figure (starting m. 94) in woodwinds and harp signals the transition to the

Second Movement (beginning m. 104), a scherzo with two trios. A waltz-like theme is given by two clarinets (m. 104), and taken up by the violin in double-stops. Viennese high spirits, even sauciness, are recalled, alternating capriciously with more reflective moods; the two trio sections are each introduced by the orchestra without the soloist, the first Trio (m. 137, Subito un poco energico), the second Trio (m. 155, Meno mosso). Then the first Trio is repeated (m. 167, poco energico, tuba solo) before the reprise of the scherzo (m. 173 clarinets again, but now with a counter melody in the violin). The tempo winds down before the appearance in the horn of the folksong in G flat major (m. 214), a nostalgic country dance called a Landler. The waltz tempo returns and the movement ends somewhat pensively in G minor (with F sharp as major 7th); thus, G-Bflat-D-Fsharp, the first four notes of the tone-row.

The Third Movement is a violin cadenza accompanied by the orchestra; the mood is anguished, as befits its subject, which is the onset and progress of the disease and the girl's ultimately unsuccessful struggle against it. A staggering rhythm first appearing in the horns (m. 23), then in chords in the solo violin (m. 35), symbolizes the illness; Manon's resistance is seen in references to the waltz theme and arpeggio motive (mm. 60-80). A more tranquil middle section (beginning m. 78) may represent a stabilization that occurred prior to the final stage. After a shattering climax (m. 125, molto pesante), based on the rhythmic motive of m. 23, the music calms down again towards the

Fourth Movement (beginning m. 136 ) the solo violin' builds the chorale's opening, note by note, on its lower strings, at last giving it completely. The woodwinds then restate it in Bach's harmonization. The words are printed in the score over the melody: 'It is enough! Lord, when it pleases Thee, Release me! My Jesus is coming: New good-night, O world, I am going to the Heavenly house. I will travel safely in peace, My misery left here below.' The chorale subsides, and the arpeggio figure, 'exhalation' only, is heard quietly in the second violins and cellos (mm. 158-165). At this point, the solo violin begins a slow steady ascent which is gradually lost in the mass of the orchestra as instruments are added; another climax is reached and gradually calms. The landler, now marked to be played 'from afar, ' emerges in the clarinet and horn (mm. 204-207); a coda founded on the chorale concludes (m. 214), with the arpeggio motive breathing again 'from afar' in the last two bars. Manon has traveled safely in peace; the girl has become the 'angel'.

This is the primary programme of the concerto; however, research has revealed that incredibly there is another 'secret' programme at work. Berg's marriage was outwardly exemplary, but in fact he loved another woman, Hanna Fuchs-Robettin. In addition to devising motives from the initials of their names and using them in the concerto, he has constructed the work around numbers that were numerologically significant to him. The number 10 he associated with Hanna; the number 23 had special meaning for him (he believed it was his 'fate' number. He expected to die on December 23, 1935, his last full day; he passed away just after midnight on the 24th.) Also, he had founded, with Willi Reich, a music magazine called 23. The title was a joking reference to the clause in the Austrian legal code which allowed for the public correction of false statements and presumably in this case by music critics. In the concerto, these numbers are reflected in such inaudible structural details as the length of the introduction, 10 bars, and the last section (230 bars, or 10 x 23). Berg may have been saying farewell not only to Manon but to Hanna as well.

It has often been suggested that Berg wrote in the violin concerto not only a requiem for Manon but also for himself. This is true, but in fact he wrote more because the programmes though specific to personal circumstances are symbolically universal: Manon is any loved one, Berg is any one of us. The Berg concerto is not casual listening, either in language or emotion, which may work against its widespread popularity, but its significance as a work of art and as a moving human document is indisputable." Jeffrey Wall, Orchestra London, Ontario, Canada, 1997, (with minor additions by Mehdi Javanfar.)

[SPscorevideos]

The well-known 12-tone concerto in G minor!

[stueystuey]

I've listened
i don't know how many times to this and yet tonight it sounds totally fresh and alive in ways i never knew. I'm writing this at the 19 minute mark and it sounds like a church organ, and mild carnival, and the violin traipsing, and horns going this way and that, and so delicate, and joyful and wistful, and fluid and segmented, and harmonic and aharmonic, yowza

[joshuagearing]

It’s so great to actually have a full score of this wonderful concerto! Thanks so much Cmaj7 🙏👍

[stephenjablonsky]

Now that is a violin concerto! It has everything. Berg was a genius and he poured his genius into every note. The end is pure magic.

[raustaklass]

When you tune your violin






It makes you sound good so you can play beautiful music like this

[SCRIABINIST]

One of the best pieces for Violin ever written. Surprisingly tonal and atonal simultaenously, perhaps it's because of Berg's almost harmonic 12 Tone System

[py]

He wrote it to commemorate the death of 18-year-old Manon Gropius, the daughter of Alma Mahler, and after completing it he himself died in the same year.

[NanaKwame]

I find this probably the greatest work from the 2nd Viennese School. It is like to perfect marriage between tonal writing and the use of the 12 tone system and as a whole, a summary of all the ages of classical music from the new horizons of this new system has to offer, the lush and dark harmonies which were birth from the Romantic era and like a rising sun over the mountains to the very dawn of classical music as this piece pays deep respect to Bach around 18:25 (I know the chorale starts a bit earlier but the sudden key change and change of timbre by the woodwinds made it feeling like something out of a pastoral painting.

[zanexiao]

17:53 Some of the most heart-breakingly delicate writing in classical music

[edoardo]

my favourite violin concerto ever written.

[MultiRedskins]

Love the translucent nature of this work. Eerily sublime.

[alexanderwinberg]

For me, Berg manages to connect so much more emotionally than the other Serialists (Schönberg, etc.). Entirely true to the serialist style, but still deeply human.

[scriabinismydog]

"The best music comes from the ecstasies of logic."
-Alban Berg

[michaels]

Berg's profound feelings resonate through this elegy. It is good to hear it again together with the score. That fully reveals the systematic serialism one doesn't need to hear!

[albuch]

Berg's last piece being arguably one of his most importantworks. A true avangarde masterpiece!

[sergimegiascustodio]

Such an amazing piece! Every time I hear it, I discover new wonders

[albuch]

A piece of sorrow and grief (like most of what Berg wrote). One of the greatest musical works of 20th century.

[dougo]

I remember interviewing the violinist Henryk Szeryng And he told me about how he studied the concerto with Louis Krassner, who premiered the piece back in the 1930s.