Alban Berg - Lyric Suite

[Héctor]

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyric_Suite"]Lyric Suite [/ame] is a six-movement work for string quartet written by Alban Berg between 1925 and 1926 using methods derived from Schoenberg's twelve tone technique. Though publicly dedicated to Alexander von Zemlinsky (from whose Lyric Symphony it quotes), the work has recently been revealed to possess a 'secret dedication' and outline a 'secret programme'. Berg himself arranged three of the movements for string orchestra.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oCyaxA48r0"]Alban Berg - Lyric Suite[/ame]

[Taneyev]

There's a superb recording by the Hollywood SQ&Co-.

[Mischa]

the work has recently been revealed to possess a 'secret dedication' and outline a 'secret programme'

The love letters of Alban Berg & Hanna Fuchs are really recommendable, they'd been published a couple of years ago, letters full of passion, desperation and desire (Adorno had to be the discreet postman for some for them). Great read!
I very much like the Lyrische Suite, maybe less the orchestrated version of the three movements though. Adorno called the Suite a "hidden opera", a concept, I can wholeheartedly follow, there's a tremendous telling tension in between the quartet, be it with its musical material, be it with its autobiographical order of events (gioviale - amoroso - misterioso - estatico - appassionato - delirando - tenebroso - desolato).

Besides the common quotes of George & Beaudelaire et al., there's one little poem of Tagore that's been quoted in it and that pretty much sums up the Suite:

I captured you and spinned you,
my love, in the net of my music.
You're my own, my own.
You, who lives in my immortal dreams.

My 2nd favorite Berg!

[martinesco]

I would only add for clarity's sake that the Tagore quote is of course implicitly embedded in the Zemlinsky allusion from the Lyrische Symphonie "Du bist mein eigen, mein eigen", and that the Baudelaire poem was actually written under the notes in Hanna's secret copy in such a way that it could be sung - and has been on CD a couple of times, though I have not yet heard more than an excerpt and do not believe that Berg intended it to be performed. Can you tell me which George quote you are referring to? I have not got the Perle article (not so recent) or my Berg Companion here in Berlin with me and cannot remember a George connection at all for this - George makes me think of Schoenberg's 2nd String quartet rather than the Berg.
I have recordings by the Juilliard, Schoenberg & Arditti quartets; none of them truly satisfy me but I have not been able to discover which recording would correspond to my ideal, though i have fond memories of the Kohon (or was it the Ramor?) Qt on Vox long ago. Perhaps the Psophos CD on Zig Zag is the one to go for - it was given a very positive review by MusicWeb.