| Abstract |
One of the undisputed titans of modern music, Alban Berg (1885-1935) is credited with bringing opera into the 20th century with his groundbreaking masterpieces Wozzeck and Lulu. Along with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton von Webern, the other central figures of what came to be called the New Viennese School, Berg helped to revolutionize music through the development of atonal and twelve-tone composition. More than his colleagues, however, Berg retained a lasting affinity for the music of the past, especially the high Romantics, and consequently enjoyed a fame and popularity in his own lifetime known by few modern composers. Until recently, the story of Berg's life remained hidden. But now the author, in this revealing biography, tells the truth about Berg's long marriage to Helene Nahowski (reputedly an illegitimate daughter of the Emperor Franz Josef) and his secret ten-year liaison with the sister-in-law of the famous Alma Mahler Werfel. She tells of the romantic secrets written into some of Berg's best-loved music and the real reasons for the suppression of the final act of his greatest work, Lulu, which was left virtually completed at the time of his death. The author paints a vivid portrait of the remarkable city in which Berg lived and worked - the Vienna of Mahler, Freud, Karl Kraus, and Klimt - and provides a clear and subtle discussion, in terms which all can understand, of the development of Berg's music. Illustrated with rare photographs and including a critical discography, her book is a remarkable study of both the man and his music, the fullest and most readable life to date of a fascinating, romantic genius. |
