Thoughts on Berg’s Violin Concerto…
My love of Alban Berg’s violin concerto also stems from my musical background.
The language, the Austrian dialect, goes hand in hand with the articulation and coloration of this music. Mozart and Haydn are the “forefathers” of this musical language. A violin concerto by Berg is played no differently than a violin concerto by Mozart.
It needs the same transparency, the same articulation.
It is not a violin concerto in the conventional sense, where the soloist is in the foreground – it is a chamber music-like, sometimes highly intimate dialog between all the musicians.”
For me, however, this piece is not just an expression of my musical home.
For me, it is like an unconscious promise, a vision that Berg left us in the face of his approaching death.
It is a requiem for a girl who died at the age of nineteen – the first movement describes her carefree youth, her strong connection to nature, her growth into a young woman. The second movement is the description of her fatal illness – her suffering, her pain, the loss of motor control up to the “cry for help” at the moment of her death. But this is NOT where the play ends!
This work describes the path of a soul here on earth, the transformation through death and the homecoming light.
For me, this piece contains the deep knowledge that the soul is ultimately immortal.
And what better way to express something that cannot be put into words than with music, which is also known as the language of the angels…”
