Alban Berg (1885 - 1935), along with Schoenberg and Webern, is considered as one of the pioneers of avant-garde movement that gave license to the hardcore advocates of serialism and the 12-tone chromaticism to rock around the house with their eclectic vibes that still reverberates to this day. So, with no further ado, I'm proud to present the daddy-o of the modern music.peachfuzz
The works on the present SA-CDs span Berg’s creative career from his first published piece, the Piano Sonata, Op. 1, here performed in the orchestration by Theo Verbey, to the Violin Concerto and the Symphonic Pieces from the Opera ‘Lulu’, the last works that were fully completed when Berg died at the age of fifty in 1935.
The Schoenberg Quartet displays a great affinity for Alban Berg's chamber music. The larger string quartets are masterpieces of the twentieth century and are here played with a a wonderful understanding of their constant shifts in mood. The shorter pieces are also perfect and give a new way of looking at the larger works that they are normally a part of. The viola and piano sonata is a good transcription from the clarinet sonata and also adds a new dimension to the original version.
The Schoenberg Quartet displays a great affinity for Alban Berg's chamber music. The larger string quartets are masterpieces of the twentieth century and are here played with a a wonderful understanding of their constant shifts in mood. The shorter pieces are also perfect and give a new way of looking at the larger works that they are normally a part of. The viola and piano sonata is a good transcription from the clarinet sonata and also adds a new dimension to the original version.
"The best music always results from ecstasies of logic." – "When I decided to write an opera, my only intentions were to give the theater what belongs to the theater"Alban Berg
There were two Alban Berg Quartetts: the ABQ that recorded for Teldec in the '70s and the one that recorded for EMI in the '80s, '90s, and '00s. The first ABQ and the second ABQ shared two members first violinist Günter Pichler and cellist Valentin Erben and a common approach to chamber music more intellectual than emotional, more restrained than explosive, and more deep-down satisfying than superficially thrilling.
Alban Berg wrote twice for string quartet, and both results stand tall in his output. On this Naive disc, a reissue of an earlier Montaigne release, the Arditti Quartet perform these pieces. The lineup of the Ardittis at this time was Irvine Arditti and David Alberman (violin), Levine Andrade (viola) and Rohan de Saram (cello).
These are studio recordings, dating from 1985 and completing a series begun in the late 70s with the C-major quintet and pursued in the early 80s with the 15th quartet and the "Trout" quintet. The "Death and the Maiden" here is not to be confused with the later, live recording made by the ABQ and released in 1998 - which I haven't heard, but which received warm reviews.