Episodes
| Series | Title | First Broadcast | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | A Small Monument To A Great Love | 20190418 | Berg needed to visit Prague to hear fragments of Wozzeck performed. It was through his connection with Mahler's widow Alma, that he came to stay, in May 1925, in Prague, with Alma's sister in law, Hanna Fuchs-Robettin and her husband. Berg believed in the guiding force of destiny: that he was fated to meet Hanna and fall in love with her. He was 40, she was in her early 30s with two children. Divorce was unthinkable and so was the idea that Berg's wife Helene might discover the truth. But Alban's love affair with Hanna lasted the rest of his life and there exist more than a decade's worth of letters to demonstrate the depth of their passion and reveal that everything he was to write from thereon in would be influenced by his love for Hanna. So, when Berg came to compose his Lyric Suite, he wrote a document of their love affair. But this detail was hidden within musical riddles and codes and it wasn't until the 1970's that the true meaning of this work was discovered. Chamber Concerto for piano, violin and 13 wind instruments (Adagio) Daniel Barenboim, piano Pinchas Zukerman, violin Ensemble InterContemporain Pierre Boulez, conductor Dawn Upshaw, soprano Kronos Quartet Der Wein Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo soprano Vienna Philharmonic Claudio Abbado, conductor Produced by Rosie Boulton for BBC Wales Berg meets and falls in love with Hanna Fuchs-Robettin. |
| 2019 | I Corrected The Deficiency | 20190415 | Alban Berg ended up writing two operas full of depravity, bloodshed and sex. And he was once described as a musician dangerous to the community. But far from being dissolute and degenerate, Berg was a man of great sensitivity and ambiguity. He was born and lived all his life in Vienna. At the turn of the 20th Century, the city embodied a sense of crisis, standing at the heart of a whirlwind in which artistic and cultural forces came together to disorientate a whole generation. As a youngster, Berg loved the music of Brahms, Mahler and Richard Strauss and the plays of Strindberg and Ibsen. Between the ages of 16 and 19 he composed 34 songs and maybe this would have been the end of it, but his brother Charly secretly took some of these songs to show a music professor in the city - Arnold Schoenberg. He was taken on as a composition pupil and Berg regarded Schoenberg as his teacher for the rest of his life. It wasn't always an easy relationship. ܀ber den Bergen - Over the Mountains Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, baritone Aribert Reimann, piano Lied de Lulu from Lulu Suite Arleen Auger, soprano City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Simon Rattle, conductor Still is where the graves are (Schattenleben) Where the Laburnum Grows Jessye Norman, soprano Ann Schein, piano Passacaglia (arr. Von Borries) Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Mario Venzago, conductor Piano Sonata, Op 1 Mitsuko Uchida, piano String Quartet, Op 3 Alban Berg Quartet Produced by Rosie Boulton for BBC Wales Berg meets Schoenberg and his composition takes off. |
| 2019 | Show Me The Way To Glory | 20190416 | At 21, Berg wrote to a friend: I hope that when I go out into the big wide world, I'll find an honourable, wonderful young woman who will be devoted to me and show me the way to glory. He soon met and married the beautiful Helene Nahowski. She was rumoured to be the illegitimate offspring of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph. From the outside, the Berg's relationship looked ideal. There are 488 letters spanning their courtship and 28-year marriage which, on the surface, depict a loving, attentive, devoted partnership. But underneath the veneer lie years of hidden secrets. Vielgeliebte schone Frau Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, baritone Aribert Reimann, piano Seven Early Songs Anne Sophie von Otter, mezzosoprano Vienna Philharmonic Claudio Abbado, conductor Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op 5 Anthony Pay, clarinet Daniel Barenboim, piano Five Altenberg Lieder Jessye Norman, soprano London Symphony Orchestra Pierre Boulez, conductor Chamber Concerto for piano, violin and 13 wind instruments (Rondo) Pinchas Zukerman, violin Ensemble InterContemporain Produced by Rosie Boulton for BBC Wales Berg meets and marries Helene Nahowski. |
| 2019 | This Is Hell In The True Sense Of The Word | 20190417 | Faced with the squalor of conditions at an army training camp and the regular drills and tough exercise required, Alban Berg had a physical breakdown and was taken to hospital. A series of tests revealed the damaged state of his lungs, and he was declared only suitable for orderly duties. He spent the rest of the war on guard duty and in the War Ministry in Vienna. He turned his attention to a play Woyzeck, written 80 years earlier by George Büchner, based on a historical case of a barber who killed his mistress in a jealous rage. The barber was tried and condemned to death, but for the first time in the history of German law, the question was raised of diminished responsibility on the grounds of mental instability. Berg's opera, inspired by Buchner's play, came to be known as Wozzeck. At the opening night on the 14th of December 1925, it was described as sounding like: Massed attacks and convulsions of instruments - .tortured, mistuned cackling - .. A capital offence - A dissonant orgy - .scarps, shreds, sobs and belches - But there was also talk of: the strange perfection and uniqueness of this work which places him right next to the most important music dramatist of our time not only was the evening the greatest sensation of the season it was a significant event in history of music drama in general. Berg was finally and firmly on the musical map. Ferne Lieder - Distant Songs Jessye Norman, soprano Ann Schein, piano Wozzeck: Act 3, Tanzt Alle Walter Berry, baritone (Wozzeck) Ingeborg Lasser, contralto (Margret) Orchestra and Choir Of Paris Opera Pierre Boulez, conductor Wozzeck: Act 3, Scenes 4 and 5 Three Pieces for Orchestra Vienna Philharmonic Claudio Abbado, conductor Wein, Weib und Gesang (Waltz Op 333 by Johann Strauss II, trans. Berg) Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Mario Venzago, conductor Produced by Rosie Boulton for BBC Wales Berg suffers a brutal time in the army and writes a shocking, brilliant opera. |
| 2019 | Watch Over His Legacy | 20190419 | In the summer of 1935, Berg started to be bothered by an abscess at the base of his spine. He thought it might have been caused by insect sting. Rather than seeking professional medical help, Helene kept on lancing the boils, which kept on appearing. It's thought that the major abscess burst internally, and poisoned Berg's blood. He was rushed to hospital, operated on and given a transfusion. There was a turn for the worse on the 23rd of December 1935. He died just about midnight. He was 50 years old. Berg left the score of his opera Lulu incomplete. Thereafter ensued years of legal wrangles between opera houses, music publishers and Helene. She set up a shrine to their marriage, setting in aspic their homes in Vienna and in the countryside. `Alban can wait with confidence until this Hell on earth has ceased to rage,` she wrote. `His time will come - a better time, I am convinced - My life's sole purpose is to watch over his legacy and preserve its purity. What else is left for me in this world estranged from God!' Helene died in 1976 and disputes about the opera continued until 1979 when, nearly 44 years after Berg's death, Lulu was finally performed, in its entirety. Schliesse mir die Augen beide (1907) Jessye Norman, soprano Ann Schein, piano Schliesse mir die Augen beide (1925) Lulu Suite: Variationen City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Simon Rattle, conductor Violin Concerto Isabelle Faust, violin. Orchestra Mozart Claudio Abbado, conductor Produced by Rosie Boulton for BBC Wales Berg dies from an infected insect sting and his wife Helene sets up a shrine to his memory |