BERG, Alban
b Vienna, 9 February 1885
d Vienna, 24 December 1935, aged fifty

He was born of a wealthy and artistic family. He trained for and entered the Civil Service, and before he met Schoenberg in 1904 his musical education was negligible. Schoenberg taught him and Webern at the same time, but Schoenberg's championship of Berg brought the latter no great acclaim. He was in the Austrian Army during World War I, though his health was precarious bronchial asthma plagued him for the rest of his life. During leave in 1917 he started work on Wozzeck, and published some other works at his own expense. Devaluation of Austrian currency after 1918 brought him financial problems, and he was often in difficulties; but though he was made a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1930, Nazi Germany made performances of his work impossible. He died from blood-poisoning after an insect bite.
1905 8 (20-3)
Seven 'Fruhe Lieder' for soprano and piano or orchestra
1906-8 (21-3)
Piano Sonata
1908 (23)
An Leukon, for voice and piano
1909-10 (24)
Four Songs for medium voice and piano 1
910 (25)
String Quartet
1912 (27)
Five Orchestral Songs to picture postcard texts by Peter Altenberg
1913 (28)
Four pieces for clarinet and piano
Three Orchestral Pieces (1913-14)
1917-21 (32-6)
Wozzeck, opera
1923-5 (38-40)
Chamber Concerto for piano, violin and thirteen wind instruments
1925 6 (40)
Lyric Suite, for string quartet
1925-34 (43-9)
Lulu, opera
1929 (44)
Three Pieces for Orchestra
Der Wein, concert aria for soprano and orchestra (possibly 1920)
1935 (50)
Violin Concerto, 'in memory of an angel' (ie Manon Gropius, eighteen-year-old daughter of Mahler's widow by her second husband)