Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935 ) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively small oeuvre, he is remembered as one of the most important composers of the 20th century for his expressive style encompassing "entire worlds of emotion and structure".
Berg was born and lived in Vienna. He began to compose only at the age of fifteen. He studied counterpoint, music theory and harmony with Arnold Schoenberg between 1904 and 1911, and adopted his principles of developing variation and the twelve-tone technique. Berg's major works include the operas Wozzeck (1924) and Lulu (1935, finished posthumously), the chamber pieces Lyric Suite and Chamber Concerto, as well as a Violin Concerto. He also composed a number of songs (lieder). He is said to have brought more "human values" to the twelve-tone system, his works seen as more "emotional" than Schoenberg's. His music had a surface glamour that won him admirers when Schoenberg himself had few.
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Wozzeck (2017)
Wozzeck by A. Berg, from Dutch National Opera, 2017. Directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, conductor Marc Albrecht, starring Christopher Maltman, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Jason Bridges, Willard White, Morschi Franz, Richard Prada, Frank van Aken, Marcel Beekman, Scott Wilde, Ursula Hesse von den Steinen...
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Violin Concerto (1984)
Recorded live from the Herkulessaal Munich, Sir Colin Davis conducts the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, with soloist Gidon Kremer, in a performance of Alban Berg‘s elegiac Violin Concerto. Alban Berg completed this concerto for violin and orchestra in 1935, impelled by the news of the d...
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Wozzeck (1970)
In his autobiography Opera Years Rolf Liebermann wrote: “Of all the film versions of operas in which I was involved, my favourite has always been Wozzeck, mainly because the interpreters and location were so convincingly authentic.” And truly, this film adoption of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, recorded ...
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Wozzeck (2010)
Wozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama Woyzeck, which the German playwright Georg Büchner left incomplete at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchn...
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Lulu (2015)
Lulu by Berg from Bayerische Staatsoper, performed at National Theatre Munich, 2015. Directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov, conductor Kirill Petrenko. Starring Marlis Petersen (Lulu), Bo Skhovus (Dr. Schön, Jack the Ripper), Matthias Klink (Alwa), Daniela Sindram (Countess Geschwitz), Rainer Trost (The ...
