In Memory of...

Intertwining Berg’s poignant melodies with heart-stirring choreography, In Memory of... is a serene and elegiac work recalling innocence and loss.

On learning of the death of the young daughter of a close friend, Alban Berg, who had a deep affection for the 18-year-old girl, was so overcome that he put aside work on his opera Lulu and began composing a violin concerto which, in his own words, was “dedicated to an angel.” The music is divided into programmatic sections: first, a portrait of the girl; next, her illness and death; lastly, her transfiguration. Also hidden within the composition are many autobiographical references to Berg himself. These events took place in the mid-thirties during the Nazi rise to power, which, in Austria, left Berg more or less nationless and stripped of his position and security. Within four months of completing the orchestration of the concerto, Berg himself died without ever having heard it performed, and leaving the last act of Lulu unfinished.

27 minutes