This Week in Classical Music: February 12, 2024. Alban Berg, Part II. In 1911, Arnold Schoenberg moved from Vienna to Berlin but the intense relationship between Berg and his teacher continued through letters. Schoenberg’s notes often contained demands that were about more than just the music: some were domestic, some financial. Though Berg adored his teacher, Schoenberg’s demands were difficult and time-consuming, and the relationship was getting more difficult – so much so that in 1915 their correspondence broke off. WWI was in full swing; Berg was conscripted into the Austrian Army and served for three years (the 42-year-old Schoenberg, who moved back to Vienna in 1915, also served in the army, but only for a year). Things changed in 1918 after Berg was discharged: he returned to Vienna and reestablished his relationship with his teacher.
In May of 1914 Berg attended a performance of Woyzeck, a play by the German playwright Georg Büchner. He immediately decided to write an opera based on the play; it would become known as Wozzeck, a misspelling of the original play’s name that somehow stuck. Berg wrote the libretto himself, selecting 15 episodes from Woyzeck, a macabre story of a poor and desperate soldier, who, suspecting that the mother of his illegitimate child is having an affair with the Captain, murders her, and then drowns. Berg started writing sketches soon after he saw the play but had to stop in June of 1915 when he was drafted. He continued composing while on leave in 1917 and 1918, finished the first act in 1919, the second act two years later, and completed the opera in 1922. It premiered at the Berlin State Opera in December of 1925, with Erich Kleiber conducting. Wozzeck created a scandal, which is understandable, given that it was the first full-size opera written in an atonal idiom, unique not only musically but also in its emotional impact. What is more important (and somewhat surprising) is that the premier was followed by a slew of productions across Germany and Austria. Wozzeck was staged continuously in different German-speaking cities for the next eight years, but also internationally: in Prague, Philadelphia, and even in such an unlikely place as Leningrad. It all came to an end when the Nazis banned it as part of their campaign against Entartete Musik (Degenerate music) and the Austrians dutifully followed. Wozzeck’s success made Berg financially secure, brought him international recognition and some teaching jobs. We’ll listen for the first 15 minutes of Act II of Wozzeck. In Scene 1, Marie puts her son to bed, then Vozzeck arrives, gets suspicious of her earrings (they were given to her by the Captain), gives her some money and leaves. In Scene 2, the Doctor and the Captain walk the street; they see Wozzeck, make fun of him and insinuate that Marie isn’t faithful. Wozzeck runs away in despair. Claudio Abbado conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Vienna State Opera (we know the orchestra as the Vienna Philharmonic); Wozzeck is sung by Franz Grundheber, his common-law wife Marie is Hildegard Behrens. Heinz Zednik is the Captain, Aage Haugland is the Doctor.
Wozzeck was an atonal opera, but it wasn’t a 12-note composition, the technique which by then was being developed by Schoenberg. Berg was receptive to it and soon moved in a similar direction. He wrote two pieces, Kammerkonzert (Chamber Concerto for Piano and Violin with 13 Wind Instruments), completed in 1925, and Lyric Suite, a year later, which broadly used the 12-tone technique. In 1929 he started work on his second major opera, Lulu, a much larger and more complex composition than Wozzeck. We’ll cover it next week, in our the third and final installment on Berg.
Alban Berg, part II, 2024
This Week in Classical Music: February 12, 2024. Alban Berg, Part II. In 1911, Arnold Schoenberg moved from Vienna to Berlin but the intense relationship between Berg and his
teacher continued through letters. Schoenberg’s notes often contained demands that were about more than just the music: some were domestic, some financial. Though Berg adored his teacher, Schoenberg’s demands were difficult and time-consuming, and the relationship was getting more difficult – so much so that in 1915 their correspondence broke off. WWI was in full swing; Berg was conscripted into the Austrian Army and served for three years (the 42-year-old Schoenberg, who moved back to Vienna in 1915, also served in the army, but only for a year). Things changed in 1918 after Berg was discharged: he returned to Vienna and reestablished his relationship with his teacher.
In May of 1914 Berg attended a performance of Woyzeck, a play by the German playwright Georg Büchner. He immediately decided to write an opera based on the play; it would become known as Wozzeck, a misspelling of the original play’s name that somehow stuck. Berg wrote the libretto himself, selecting 15 episodes from Woyzeck, a macabre story of a poor and desperate soldier, who, suspecting that the mother of his illegitimate child is having an affair with the Captain, murders her, and then drowns. Berg started writing sketches soon after he saw the play but had to stop in June of 1915 when he was drafted. He continued composing while on leave in 1917 and 1918, finished the first act in 1919, the second act two years later, and completed the opera in 1922. It premiered at the Berlin State Opera in December of 1925, with Erich Kleiber conducting. Wozzeck created a scandal, which is understandable, given that it was the first full-size opera written in an atonal idiom, unique not only musically but also in its emotional impact. What is more important (and somewhat surprising) is that the premier was followed by a slew of productions across Germany and Austria. Wozzeck was staged continuously in different German-speaking cities for the next eight years, but also internationally: in Prague, Philadelphia, and even in such an unlikely place as Leningrad. It all came to an end when the Nazis banned it as part of their campaign against Entartete Musik (Degenerate music) and the Austrians dutifully followed. Wozzeck’s success made Berg financially secure, brought him international recognition and some teaching jobs. We’ll listen for the first 15 minutes of Act II of Wozzeck. In Scene 1, Marie puts her son to bed, then Vozzeck arrives, gets suspicious of her earrings (they were given to her by the Captain), gives her some money and leaves. In Scene 2, the Doctor and the Captain walk the street; they see Wozzeck, make fun of him and insinuate that Marie isn’t faithful. Wozzeck runs away in despair. Claudio Abbado conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Vienna State Opera (we know the orchestra as the Vienna Philharmonic); Wozzeck is sung by Franz Grundheber, his common-law wife Marie is Hildegard Behrens. Heinz Zednik is the Captain, Aage Haugland is the Doctor.
Wozzeck was an atonal opera, but it wasn’t a 12-note composition, the technique which by then was being developed by Schoenberg. Berg was receptive to it and soon moved in a similar direction. He wrote two pieces, Kammerkonzert (Chamber Concerto for Piano and Violin with 13 Wind Instruments), completed in 1925, and Lyric Suite, a year later, which broadly used the 12-tone technique. In 1929 he started work on his second major opera, Lulu, a much larger and more complex composition than Wozzeck. We’ll cover it next week, in our the third and final installment on Berg.