Alban Berg
Piano Sonata op. 1
Berg’s pupil Adorno once said, “Whoever is seriously trying to comprehend Berg’s music should closely apply themselves to the eleven-page piano sonata”. It is tempting to enlarge upon this statement: Whoever is trying to get to grips with New Music will not be able to avoid Berg’s opus 1. It is one of the most frequently played sonatas amongst the Second Viennese School piano compositions. With this publication Henle is introducing Urtext editions to classical modernism. Once again, pianists will find flawless engraving, an absolutely reliable musical text and a commentary based on the sources. This edition is worldwide available.
About the Composer
Alban Berg
Together with his teacher Schönberg and with Webern, he belongs to the Second Viennese School, which defined musical advancement through atonality and the twelve-tone technique. His modest oeuvre is explained not only by his early death, but also by his high aesthetic standard. His two operas Wozzeck and Lulu shaped twentieth-century music theatre. He also wrote essays on analytical and aesthetic matters.
| 1885 | Born in Vienna on February 9, the son of an art and book dealer. |
| from 1904 | Studies with Arnold Schönberg. |
| 1904–06 | Employment as an accountant. After coming into an inheritance, he relinquishes the position and dedicates himself to music. |
| 1905–08 | Seven Early Songs (orchestrated 1928). |
| 1909 | Sonata for piano, Op. 1, in one movement, in sonata-form. |
| 1909–10 | Four Songs for voice and piano, Op. 2, atonal with dense contrapuntal structure. |
| 1910 | String Quartet, Op. 3, with expressive tonal qualities. |
| 1912 | Five Orchestral Songs, texts from postcards from Peter Altenberg, Op. 4. Completes piano reduction of Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder. |
| 1913 | Four Pieces for clarinet and piano, Op. 5. |
| 1913–15 | Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6. |
| 1923–25 | Chamber Concerto for Piano and Violin with Thirteen Wind Instruments. |
| 1925 | Premiere in Berlin of his most famous opera, “Wozzeck,” considered an Expressionist work. |
| 1925–26 | Lyric Suite for string quartet, using twelve-tone technique. |
| 1929 | Concert aria “Der Wein” after Charles Baudelaire. |
| 1935 | Violin Concerto as a kind of “requiem” (dedicated “to the memory of an angel,” Manon Gropius). Dies in Vienna on December 23/24. |
| 1937 | Posthumous performance of the two acts of his unfinished opera “Lulu,” begun in 1927. |
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