Berg, Alban: Violinkonzert

Dem Andenken eines Engels – Breitkopf Urtext

The tragic circumstances surrounding the origin of the concerto are well known: Manon Gropius, the daughter of Berg's friend Alma Mahler, died of polio after the composer had written the first sketches to his violin concerto. In remembrance of her, he dedicated the work “to the memory of an angel”. Later, Berg decided to incorporate into the score the Bach chorale “Es ist genug” as a quote. He also worked on the solo part directly and intensely with the American violinist Louis Krasner, who had commissioned the work. Berg was no longer able to witness the first performance and the first edition of the concerto since he passed away in late 1935. This new edition is the first Urtext version of Berg's work, which was created in the midst of a spate of epoch-making violin concertos by Stravinsky (1931), Schoenberg (1936), Prokofiev (1937), Bartók (1938), Hindemith (1939) a. o. Errors from the first edition were corrected after an in-depth comparison with the autograph score, the short score and, in some cases, with the twelve-tone row structure.