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Alban Berg
Life Time
9 February 1885 - 24 December 1935
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Alban Berg is an Austrian composer, one of the most prominent representatives of the Novoven School of Composers. Despite the fact that the composer has only two operas, one of which was completed only long after his death, Berg entered the history of music as one of the most important composers of the New Vienna School, whose opera works are most in demand today. Berg was born on February 9, 1885 in Vienna and did not receive a formal musical education. In his youth, he was much more interested
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Alban Berg is an Austrian composer, one of the most prominent representatives of the Novoven School of Composers. Despite the fact that the composer has only two operas, one of which was completed only long after his death, Berg entered the history of music as one of the most important composers of the New Vienna School, whose opera works are most in demand today.
Berg was born on February 9, 1885 in Vienna and did not receive a formal musical education. In his youth, he was much more interested in literature than music, until he began writing at the age of 15. Later, Alban took lessons from the composer and teacher Albert Schoenberg, who became the founder of the New Vienna School, and soon devoted himself entirely to music.
In 1913, the premiere of his “Five Songs on Texts for Postcards by P. Altenberg” took place, which resulted in a scandal. The audience, being shocked by the composer’s innovation, experimentation and expressionism, did not let the work finish, causing great disturbances. This scandal, along with the critical reviews of his teacher Schoenerg about his work, dealt a big blow to Berg's self-confidence.
In 1922, after several years of work, the composer presented his new work to the public – the opera “Wozzec”, which became the pinnacle of his work and brought Berg truly world fame. The maestro did not have time to complete his second opera Lulu - he died of blood poisoning on December 24, 1935, leaving only two acts and an unfinished third ready. The work was presented in this form in 1937, and completed only in 1979 by Friedrich Church.
Among the most famous instrumental works of Berg is the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, written by him in the year of his death, which has the dedication “In Memory of an Angel”. This work was first performed in 1936 and it sounded like a requiem by an untimely departed author.