Berg

 


I began the project of going through my CD library alphabetically by composers' last names with Alkan. Now I moved into the Bs with Alban Berg and his violin concerto.
This concerto is often used to demonstrate that 12-tone music doesn't have to be coldly cerebral, and, with one of its dedications being "To the Memory of an Angel," it does so effectively. This is a tremendously moving piece, and I'm happy to have returned to it.
The version I listened to featured violinist Leonid Kogan with the USSR State Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky in 1966, the premiere Russian performance. It's on one of those cheap and wonderful Yedang Classics CDs that Tower Records still sells, though I bought mine years ago.

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