Alban BERG (1885-1935)
Violin Concerto ‘To the Memory of an Angel’ (1935) [29:09]
Seven Early Songs (1905-08, 1928) [16:09]
Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op 6 (1929 revision) [21:51]
Gil Shaham (violin), Susanna Phillips (soprano)
San Francisco Symphony cond. Michael Tilson Thomas
rec. live, January 2015 (Three Pieces), March 2018 (Concerto), November 2018 (Songs),
Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, USA
Sung German texts with English translations in booklet
SFS MEDIA SFS0080 SACD [67:09]
The two most popular works of the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg and Webern) are Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht and Berg’s violin concerto. This is written using Schoenberg’s serial technique, which many music-lovers do not care for, but it allows a wide variety of musical styles, not only from the original Viennese team, but also from other composers who adopted it, who include Frank Martin, Luigi Dallapiccola, Roger Sessions and – in his later years – Igor Stravinsky. In fact, you do not need to know anything about serial technique to appreciate this work, which, like most of Berg’s, is written in a lush and atmospheric idiom which derives principally from Mahler.
The concerto was occasioned by the death of Manon Gropius, the daughter of Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius, at the age of eighteen. Berg had known the young woman and broke off completing the orchestration of his opera Lulu to write this work, a commission from the violinist Louis Krasner, which he dedicated ‘to the memory of an angel.’ It is in two movements, each of which is divided into two parts. The first movement is a musical portrait of the young woman, alternately soulful and skittish. The second movement represents the catastrophe of her fatal illness of polio and then moves into a serene ending which features a Lutheran chorale as harmonized by Bach in his Cantata BWV 60, O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort. It is worth quoting the whole passage used by Bach:
Es ist genug,
Herr, wenn es dir gefällt,
so spanne mich doch aus.
Mein Jesus kömmt!
Nun gute Nacht, o Welt!
Ich fahr ins Himmelshaus,
ich fahre sicher hin mit Frieden;
Mein großer Jammer bleibt darnieden.
Es ist genug.
It is enough.
Lord, if it be Thy will,
Free me from my burden!
My Jesus comes;
O world, good night!
I go to heaven’s house,
I go with confidence and peace,
My great misery remains here on earth.
It is enough. (trans. Richard Stokes)
Berg’s great skill is evident from the fact that he can incorporate this chorale in Bach’s harmonization into his work without any sense of strain. The movement in the text from grief to consolation was that of Manon herself, whose last words to her mother were: ‘Let me die . . . You’ll get over it, Mummy, as you get over everything – I mean . . . as everyone gets over everything.’ This is mirrored in Berg’s score, which ends with the soul of Manon being carried off to heaven.
This beautiful work has had many recordings. Gil Shaham, whom I have admired in composers as different as Brahms and Prokofiev, offers a lyrical and rather contemplative performance. He is, of course, fully equal to the more dramatic passages, such as the outburst at the beginning of the second movement with its furious fiddling, but it is his quiet playing which stays more in the memory. Tilson Thomas gives him excellent support, in which the dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra is particularly finely handled.
The Seven Early Songs were written in the years 1905-8, during the time of Berg’s study with Schoenberg. They were a small fraction of the number of songs he wrote in his youth. These ones he chose and orchestrated in 1928, long after he had matured and after the great success of his first opera, Wozzeck. They are in a late romantic style, in which one can hear echoes of Wagner, Brahms and Richard Strauss. They are none the worse for that. The orchestra is one of modest size and the scoring quite economical. They sound gorgeous, and particularly so in this performance, to which Susanna Phillips’s rich and creamy soprano is well suited.
The Three Pieces for Orchestra were written between 1913 and 1915, though not performed until much later. This was after Berg had finished studying with Schoenberg, to whom they are dedicated. There was a brief period when instead of writing symphonies or suites it was fashionable just to write pieces for orchestra: Schoenberg himself wrote a set of five, Webern sets of six and five, and Bartók a set of four. Nevertheless, Berg’s set has the weight of a symphony. They are clearly strongly influenced by Mahler, particularly by his sixth symphony, a work much admired by the Second Viennese School. The Orchestra is large and the textures complex and I have to say that, although the work is fascinating to listen to, it sometimes seems to lose its way. The opening Praeludium opens with quiet percussion and then an alto trombone enters with a very high note – a haunting sound. It builds to a climax before ending again with percussion. The second piece, Reigen (rounds or round-dance) anticipates the inn scene in Wozzeck, gradually developing a kind of waltz. The final Marsch is the closest to Mahler, in particular the finale of the sixth symphony, complete with the hammer from that work.
Tilson Thomas does a sterling job in clarifying the textures of this dense and demanding work and, if he sometimes seems to lose the thread, I think that is as much Berg’s fault as his.
The recording is admirably clear; this is a SACD, but I was listening in ordinary two-channel stereo. Although these are live performances, applause is not included. The notes are good. There are other recordings of all these works, particularly the concerto, which has appealed to a wide range of violinists. However, I don’t think that this particular combination of works is duplicated elsewhere, so, if it suits, there is no need to hesitate.
Stephen Barber
Previous review: Michael Cookson
