ABSTRACT
Alban Berg and Anton von Webern, Schoenberg’s first pupils – first in date and in status – have been, like their teacher, the great pioneers of the new music. Apart from what proof Wozzeck offers as regards the value of the much-discussed principles of the Schoenberg school, it is obvious that the most secret and decisive factor of the world success of Wozzeck is none other than Berg’s own sheer personality. Berg and Helene Nahowski enjoyed an ideal marriage, living in idyllic peace in a delightful house, welcoming to artists in the cottage of Hitzing, or near the Karntern lakes in summer. The Symphonic Pieces which Berg extracted from the opera as a concert suite have already been performed by many major orchestras. The score is dedicated “to the memory of an angel”; Berg finished it by the Worther lake, not far from the house where Brahms had written 50 years earlier his only violin concerto.
