Berg, Violin Concerto 'To the Memory of an Angel'

Alban Berg, Violin Concerto 'To the Memory of an Angel'

Kyung-Wha Chung, violin

Chicago Symphony Orchestra  / Georg Solti, cond.

 

I. Andante - Allegro II. Allegro - Adagio

 

Alban Maria Johannes Berg, Violin Concerto 'To the Memory of an Angel'

Kyung-Wha Chung, violin / RTE Orchestra (Now, National Orchestra) / Colman Pearce, cond.

St Patrick's College in Dublin, Ireland in 1974

 

I. Andante - Allegro 0:02 II. Allegro - Adagio 13:00

 

Alban Berg, Violin Concerto 'To the Memory of an Angel'

Frank-Peter Zimmerman, violin / Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester / Daniele Gatti, conductor
Recorded at the BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall on 26th August 2012

 

I a) Andante (Prelude) b) Allegretto (Scherzo) II a) Allegro (Cadenza) b) Adagio (Chorale Variations)

 

Berg was approached to write a violin concerto by Louis Krasner in April 1935. Being tied up with writing his second opera LULU, he didn't really want to take on another project.   However, short of money and with the political situation making it increasingly difficult for Berg, he accepted the commission. The following month an event shook his world with the death of 18 year-old Manon Gropius, the daughter of the Bergs' closest friends, Alma Mahler-Gropius and the architect Walter Gropius. The violin concerto became a requiem to Manon, Berg retreated to the Attersee in the Salzkammergut across the lake from where Brahms had written his violin concerto and worked astonishingly quickly -- by Berg's usual standards, completing the work in August 1935. The work was premiered by Louis Krasner at the International Contemporary Music Festival in Barcelona in April 1936 where it was to be conducted by Anton Webern, but feeling unable to do so, emotionally as well as musically -- he was unable prepare the musicians properly; Hermann Scherchen stepped in at the last moment. Krasner and Webern joined forces for BBC recording in May 1935 Although a requiem for Manon Gropius, in hindsight it became a requiem for Berg himself, as he died little more than four months later. It also became a requiem for European culture that was being destroyed by the Nazis.