Alban Berg
Alban Berg joined late-Romantic lyricism to twelve-tone method in a small, intense body of work. Operas, chamber scores and songs carry expressionist feeling inside tightly organised forms, from the early Piano Sonata to the Four Pieces for clarinet and piano.
The Four Pieces, Op. 5, take only minutes yet move through wistful melancholy, flighty brilliance and almost funereal stillness, with clarinet colours that include echo tones and flutter-tonguing. The Piano Sonata, Op. 1, builds a whole movement world from a single opening gesture. Larger works such as Wozzeck, Lulu, the Lyric Suite, the Chamber Concerto and the Violin Concerto keep the same balance: tonal memory and quotation sit inside serial organisation, so the music can sound glamorous and human without loosening its structure. Berg’s writing favours developing variation and hidden programmes, and it remains among the most often played of the Second Viennese School.
Compositions by Alban Berg appear on
A Day in the Life of a Clarinet
Peter Jenkin presents the clarinet in its many modern guises, equally at home with Alban Berg, multi-tracked Bach, klezmer, tango, jazz and electronics.