The Alban Berg Memorial outside Vienna State Opera House

In June 2016 the Alban Berg Memorial outside Vienna State Opera House by Wolf D. Prix (COOP HIMMELB[L]AU) was unveiled in an official ceremony. Since then, it has been well-received by tourists as a popular photo motif. 

 

The artist writes: 

 

Wolf D. Prix

Alban Berg Sculpture, Vienna, Austria

The Viennese School

Alban Berg

Arnold Schönberg

Anton Webern

and

Gustav Mahler – Director of the Court Opera

 

Outside Vienna State Opera House, one of the city’s most prominent sites, the Alban Berg Foundation has erected a sculpture to commemorate the composers of the Viennese School – Alban Berg, Arnold Schönberg, Anton Webern – and the composer and Director of the Court Opera Gustav Mahler.

For formal and also legal reasons, the sculpture is placed on a plinth which enhances the design. The overall appearance as an elegant, glimmering object is achieved by a polished metallic surface which – besides its lasting quality – also guarantees simple cleaning and restoration.

He is the only 20th-century opera composer who was unconditionally committed to modernism and yet still continues to fascinate audiences to this day: Alban Berg, whose Wozzeck and Lulu are stage masterpieces. Yet his name is inextricably linked to the names of his fellow combatants: his teacher Arnold Schönberg, his colleague and friend Anton Webern, and also Gustav Mahler. The latter’s compositions formed the basis of the Viennese School of New Music, and as Director of the Court Opera he was a defining figure at the turn of the century.

Alban Berg himself created a little monument for the triumvirate of the twelve-tone technique when he introduced his Chamber Concerto (1925) with a motto that translates into music the names of Schönberg and Webern, besides his own. In addition, the number three and its multiples were smuggled into the piece, as Berg himself wrote in an open letter to his teacher.

Inspired by the notation and sound, Wolf D. Prix from Coop Himmelb(l)au designed a sculpture whose expansive loops respond to the expressive lines in the music, thus erecting a memorial to the composers of the Viennese School and their mentor.

By dedicating, financing and implementing the sculpture at Herbert-von-Karajan-Platz outside Vienna State Opera, the Alban Berg Foundation has enabled one of the most important movements of Viennese Modernism to be visible in the public sphere.

 

ALBAN BERG SCULPTURE PROJECT TEAM

Client: Alban Berg Foundation, Vienna, Austria

Planning: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU Wolf D. Prix & Partner ZT GmbH

Design: Wolf D. Prix, Sophie C. Grell

Project partner: Markus Pillhofer

Project team: Friedrich Hähle, Jörg Hugo

Model construction: Win Man

Coordination: Werner Baumüller/Werkstatt Kollerschlag

Structural design: B+G Ingenieure, Bollinger und Grohmann GmbH,

Vienna, Austria

Lighting design: ERCO Lighting GmbH Vienna, Austria

 

CHRONOLOGY

Start of planning: 04/2015

Start of construction: 02/2016

Completed: 06/2016

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