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Alban Berg: Piano Sonata, String Quartet (Piano Four Hands​)​, Chamber Concerto

by Jean-François Heisser, Marie-Josèphe Jude, Péter Csaba, Prague Wind Quintet, Czech Soloists

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1.
Piano Sonata, Op. 1 Mäβig bewegt 12:29
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2.
String Quartet Op. 3 I. Langsam Piano four hands version 10:11
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3.
String Quartet Op. 3 II. Mäβige Viertel Piano four hands version 09:58
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4.
Chamber Concerto for Piano, Violin and 13 Wind Instruments I. Motto - Thema scherzoso con variazoni 08:34
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5.
Chamber Concerto for Piano, Violin and 13 Wind Instruments II. Adagio 14:51
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6.
Chamber Concerto for Piano, Violin and 13 Wind Instruments III. Rondo ritmico con introduzione (Kadenz) 18:31
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about

Originally planned with a typical classical form in three or four contrasting movements, Alban Berg’s Piano Sonata Op. 1 finally consists of a single movement. Short of ideas to fuel the other movements, Berg turned to his friend Schönberg who pointed out that the lack of inspiration meant he had said all there was to say! Although the piece is in the key of B minor, Berg makes frequent use of chromaticism, the tonal scale, and wanders between the main keys, giving a sense of tonal instability, only resolved in the closing bars.

The premiere took place in Vienna on 24 April 1911; during this same concert, the premiere of the String Quartet Op. 3 was heard. In two movements, it is one of Berg’s most original compositions, reminding Schönberg’s Quartet in F sharp minor, closer to romanticism than contemporary scores for string quartet (Webern for example). This opus 3 combines an extreme precision of writing, of execution indications with a formidable expressionist outburst. In powerfully polyphonic writing, it no longer relies on a theme in the classical sense but uses in a very original way a technique of variations based on small fragments and intervals whose total sum of notes does not yet form a series, while giving a permanent feeling of cohesion and belonging to a common core.

Berg himself transcribed this quartet for piano four hands in 1930 (the score remained in manuscript until 1994). The Chamber Concerto was composed in 1923-1924, a period following the completion of the opera Wozzeck. It was a happy time for Berg who becomes definitely aware of his genius and begins to be relatively recognized by the Viennese public.

This Kammerkonzert also testifies to the unfailing friendship to Schönberg (to whom the work is dedicated on the occasion of his 50th birthday) and to Anton Webern. Berg wanted to write a score with an easy style, even light, but also munitiously elaborated, its lyrical expression having to fit into an orderly architecture around the number 3 and its multiples, the basis governing the number of movements, sections, constituent measures, instrumental groups. The spirit is close to the concertante symphony for piano, violin and wind instruments, at the limit of their possibilities of velocity. But as often with Berg, the formal constraints he imposes on himself only fuel the bubbling expressiveness of the musical discourse that is also served by a great instrumental science.
Awards: Choc by Le Monde de la Musique, 5 by Diapason,

Recommended by Classica

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released March 1, 2000

Jean-François Heisser
Marie-Josèphe Jude
Péter Csaba
Prague Wind Quintet (Ensemble)
Czech Soloists (Ensemble)
Vladimír Válek - conductor

Recorded in Paris, July 6-7, 1998

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