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Alban Berg (1885 - 1935), along with Schoenberg and Webern, is considered as one of the pioneers of avant-garde movement and it would be a great disservice to leave him out of the discussion of contemporary music. After all, it was the hardcore advocates of serialism and the 12-tone chromaticism, founded by Schoenberg and propagated by his two prodigies, that gave roots to the later generations of eclectic bag of composers. Being the most outwardly romantic of the three composers of the Second Viennese School, Berg's music is the most suggestive of the post-romanticism of Wagner and Mahler. Berg was something of a musical dilettante when he began his studies with Schoenberg in 1903. Ultimately, he composed relatively little music, beginning with the Altenberg Lieder in 1912, followed by the Three Orchestral Pieces in 1914. It was in that same year that he began to write an opera based on a play by Georg Büchner. Wozzeck was composed during Berg's service in World War I, and finished in 1922. The opera was given its first performance at the Berlin State Opera in 1925, and was received with a mixture of horror, admiration, heavy criticism, awe and perception. Atonal and highly Expressionistic, yet tightly constructed, the fifteen musical scenes all being based on older musical forms. Berg embraced the twelve-tone system developed by Schoenberg, composing the Lyric Suite for string quartet, the Chamber Concerto, and a Violin Concerto employing those principles. Berg's last work, the opera Lulu, was left in a somewhat incomplete state at the time of his premature death in 1935. The opera's third act was completed based on the composer's score by Friedrich Cerha in 1963, and received its "world premiere" in Paris in 1979. So, with no further ado, I'm proud to present the daddy-o of the modern music. —peachfuzz

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Tracklist

Disc 1

Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6 (19:44)
I. Praludium, Langsam
II. Reigen, Anfangs Etwas Zogernd - Leicht ...
III. Marsch. Mabiges Marschtempo

Three Pieces from the "Lyric Suite" for String Orchestra (16:26)
II. Andante Amoroso
III. Allegro Misterioso - ...
IV. Adagio Appassionata

Concerto for Violin (27:43)
I. Andante - Allegretto
II. Allegro - Adagio

Deutsche Grammophone Collectors Edition
DG 474 657-2
Released 2003