Description
Alban Berg Quartett Performs Berg's Emotional String Quartets: Lyric Suite and Op. 3 CD
Product Details
- UPC: 724355519023
- Product Type: Music CD
- Brand: EMI Classics
- MPN (Catalog Number): 7243 5 55190 2 3
- Artist: Alban Berg Quartett (ABQ)
- Composer: Alban Berg (1885–1935)
- Genre: Classical
- Style: Second Viennese School, Expressionism, Atonal/Twelve-Tone, Chamber Music
- Release Year: 1994 (Copyright Year)
- Instrumentation: String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola, Cello)
Overview
This essential EMI Classics recording presents two of Alban Berg's most significant contributions to the string quartet repertoire, performed by the ensemble that bears his name: the Alban Berg Quartett (ABQ). The album features the composer's earliest and latest works for the medium: the ambitious String Quartet, Op. 3 (1910) and the emotionally charged, six-movement Lyric Suite (1925/26).
The ABQ, known for their meticulous attention to the scores of the Second Viennese School, navigates the contrasting styles of these two masterpieces. The Op. 3 quartet sits on the cusp of atonality, a "strikingly new language" that still leverages the density and conversational imitative counterpoint of the classical string quartet tradition. The Lyric Suite moves fully into the twelve-tone technique, yet retains an "unashamedly generous heart," showcasing Berg's unique blend of emotional drama and rigorous structure.
Product Features
- Format: Audio CD, Stereo
- Ensemble: Alban Berg Quartett (Gunter Pichler, Gerhard Schulz, Thomas Kakuska, Valentin Erben)
- Total Runtime: 35 minutes 59 seconds (Total of all movements)
- Repertoire: Alban Berg's complete music for string quartet.
- Mastering: Digital recording (SPARS Code not specified, but typically ADD/DDD for this era EMI Classics).
- Languages: Track titles in English, German (Streichquartett), and French (Quatuor à cordes).
Interesting Facts
- The ABQ's Dedication: The Alban Berg Quartett, formed in 1971, dedicated themselves to the music of the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern), making their interpretations of Berg's quartets particularly authoritative.
- Op. 3—The Farewell Piece: The String Quartet, Op. 3 was Berg's final major work written under the tutelage of his teacher, Arnold Schoenberg. Completed in 1910, it is a crucial "milestone of the early 20th Century" in the move toward free atonality. The two-movement work is described as having a density that is both "captivating, tense, comforting, warm, rich, and easy to grab onto".
- The Secret Program of Lyric Suite: Though publicly dedicated to Alexander von Zemlinsky, the six-movement Lyric Suite was a "small monument to a great love"—a clandestine love affair between Berg and Hanna Fuchs-Robettin. The score is secretly encoded with their initials (A.B. and H.F.) transliterated into musical notes, numerology based on the number of letters in their full names (23 and 10), and quotes from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (a signifier of doomed love).
- "Latent Opera": Theodor Adorno, a friend of Berg's, famously called the Lyric Suite a "latent opera" due to its intense dramatic trajectory, which descends from an "Allegretto gioviale" (cheerful) to a "Largo desolato" (desolate). The last movement was even discovered to have a suppressed vocal line setting Baudelaire's poem "De profundis clamavi".
Track Listing ALBAN BERG 1885–1935
STRING QUARTET, OP.3 (1910) / STREICHQUARTETT, OP.3
- I. Langsam (0:45)
- II. Mäßige Viertel (10:00)
LYRIC SUITE FOR STRING QUARTET (1925/6) / LYRISCHE SUITE FÜR STREICHQUARTETT
- I. Allegretto gioviale (3:03)
- II. Andante amoroso (5:38)
- III. Allegro misterioso (3:10)
- IV. Adagio appassionato (5:19)
- V. Presto delirando (4:30)
- VI. Largo desolato (5:28)
ALBAN BERG QUARTETT
- Günter Pichler 1st violin/1. Violine/1er violon
- Gerhard Schulz 2nd violin/2. Violine/2me violon
- Thomas Kakuska Viola/alto
- Valentin Erben Violoncello/violoncelle
Publishers
- Label: EMI Classics
- Copyright: ℗ 1994 The copyright in this sound recording is owned by EMI Records Ltd.
- Publishing Year: © 1994 EMI Records Ltd.
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