published: 25. Nov 2024
Around 3,000 books, music scores, journals, brochures and other documents from the 18th to 20th centuries have been preserved in Alban and Helene Berg’s library at the Alban Berg Foundation. The core collection is located in the composer’s study, which is inscribed on Austria’s national heritage list and still in its original condition. It is here that Alban Berg worked closely with these materials, also during the genesis of his works. Numerous volumes are annotated with extensive handwritten comments and other markings that will now allow a greater insight into Berg as a reader.
published: 18. Nov 2024
Hanna Bertel:
Between Avant-Garde and Tradition. Helene Berg and Smaragda Eger-Berg as Contrasting Artists of Viennese Modernism
Helene Berg and Smaragda Eger-Berg had a close relationship with the composer Alban Berg, as his wife and sister respectively, and they represent contrasting role models in the era of Viennese Modernism. Helene Berg was an artist and talented singer before she abandoned her career as a musician shortly before she married Alban Berg. In contrast, Smaragda Eger-Berg continued as a professional pianist and accompanist despite her marriage, and she thrived in her homosexuality after the break-up of her marriage. Both women were musically active, but their lives took two entirely different paths. While Smaragda carved out her own way through life as a free spirit, Helene cherished her role as a composer’s wife and became integrated into her husband’s artistic milieu.
The aim of this lecture is to illustrate the dimensions of artistic freedom and independence in the lives of the two women, and also to demonstrate the restrictions experienced by them despite the different ways in which they lived, using specific examples. Their individual activities as cultural networkers also reveal fresh perspectives on the role of women in the social and artistic networks of Viennese Modernism. Pictures, excerpts from letters and documents from the Alban Berg Foundation grant a vivid insight into the specific forms of expression and the zeitgeist of this epoch.
published: 9. Nov 2024
Michael Hagleitner:
Lecture to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Frank Martin (1890-1974), with audio/visual examples.
The reception of Frank Martin’s music has altered since his death: during his lifetime, it was especially the works composed from 1938 onwards that attracted interest, after his exploration of dodecaphony, whereas in recent decades Martin’s most-performed pieces have been compositions from the first half of his life. This lecture will explore the development of his unmistakable personal style, which combines aspects of impressionism, twelve-tone music and neoclassicism, and can therefore be understood as a synthesis of the principal movements of early modernism.
While building a bridge between Frank Martin’s (modally influenced) earlier works – as his most widely-performed compositions today – and the music of his mature style, the lecture will also illuminate the role of the twelve-tone technique in this development. The speaker will also present insights gained from his work at the Alban Berg Foundation, for example from Alban Berg’s correspondence with Ernest Ansermet, who initiated the growth of Martin’s home city of Geneva into “a veritable Berg city” (Erwin Stein, UE, 1934), which inspired Martin’s exploration of dodecaphony.
21 November 2024, 6 p.m., Österreichische Gesellschaft für Musik [Austrian Music Society], Hanuschgasse 3, 1010 Vienna
published: 19. Sep 2024
Alban Berg. Aufsätze, Vorträge und andere Texte [Essays, lectures and other texts] (Alban Berg Sämtliche Werke III/2, ed. Kordula Knaus with preliminary work by Julia Bungardt)
Book presentation and reading with Kordula Knaus (editor) and Martina Stilp (speaker)
Thursday, 3 October 2024, 6 p.m.
mdw, Lesesaal der Universitätsbibliothek [University Library Reading Room], Anton-Webern-Platz 1, 1030 Vienna
Please send registrations by 1 October 2024 to office@albanbergstiftung.at – Subject: Book presentation
Photo: (c) Alban Berg Stiftung
published: 21. May 2024
published: 23. Mar 2024The Alban Berg Foundation is mourning Aribert Reimann, who died on 13 March 2024 aged 88. Besides his chamber and orchestral music, his creative work – which is closely linked to the human voice – developed above all in songs and operas, of which especially Lear and Medea are examples of his lasting legacy.
Aribert Reimann’s Trio for Violin, Viola and Violoncello (1986/87) was commissioned by the Foundation and is dedicated to the memory of Alban Berg.
published: 29. Feb 2024
In cooperation with the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (mdw) and Universal Edition Vienna, the Alban Berg Foundation is inviting entries to a competition for the composition of a Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.
Composers must have been born after 31 December 1995 to be eligible for participation. The work should be a new composition that is directly linked to Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, especially as regards its orchestral scoring, which must be similar and under no circumstances for a larger orchestra. The work should have a maximum duration of 25 minutes.
Deadline for entries: 15 December 2024
published: 28. Feb 2024
Hanna Bertel:
Zwischen Avantgarde und Tradition. Helene Berg und Smaragda Eger-Berg als kontrastierende Künstlerinnen der Wiener Moderne [Between Avant-garde and Tradition. Helene Berg and Smaragda Eger-Berg as contrasting artists of Viennese Modernism]
29 April 2024, 6 p.m., Österreichische Gesellschaft für Musik [Austrian Music Society], Hanuschgasse 3, 1010 Vienna
Photos: Smaragda Eger-Berg (left), Helene Berg (right) © Alban Berg Stiftung
published: 27. Feb 2024
Invitation to a book presentation
Daniel Ender
Alban Berg im Bild
Fotografien und Darstellungen 1887-1935 [Alban Berg in Photographs and Illustrations]
on Sunday, 10 March 2024
at 3 p.m.
in Bezirksmuseum Hietzing [Hietzing District Museum]
Am Platz 2
1130 Vienna
(directly adjacent to Hietzing U4 underground train station)
After the event, Böhlau publishing house invites all guests to stay for bread and wine.
published: 15. Nov 20236 December 2023, 6 p.m., Austrian Music Society [Österreichische Gesellschaft für Musik], Hanuschgasse 3, 1010 Vienna
The opera Wozzeck has been published as a printed full score on two previous occasions: in 1926, one year after the work was premiered in Berlin, the score was published by Universal Edition. The first edition received extensive corrections and reworking as a result of the initial performances, and these changes should have been included in a planned new edition of the opera. However, it was not until the 1950s that the edition by Hans Erich Apostel was published with the final corrections and amendments left by the composer.
This current edition endeavours not only to produce notation that is based on all the available sources, but also to go to the greatest possible lengths to reconstruct the visual peculiarities in the layout of the autograph score. In addition, the ossia variants that were omitted in the vocal parts of Apostel’s edition, as well as other, later additions from Berg’s personal working copy of the printed full score, have been included in this edition.The Wozzeck autograph score has its own fascinating peculiarities, not least due to several notational qualities that can be understood as a concrete visualization of proceedings in the music drama. These include the continuation of staves for the voices and instruments even though there is no notation, in a full score where “empty staves” were not a standard feature.
One peculiarity in the layout of the full score is seen in Act II: indenting a chamber orchestra positioned centrally in the large orchestra. This not only makes it easier to recognize the instruments visually, but also directly illustrates the conflict between Wozzeck and Marie. Using the colour red for the stage music in Acts II and III visualizes a difference that can be seen not just as colourful “decoration”, but also as emphasis of its diegetic function.