 | Anton Webern conducts Alban Berg's Violin Concerto ("To the Memory of an Angel"), with Louis Krasner, who commissioned the concerto, as soloist.
Berg spoke highly of Webern's skills as a conductor, calling him "the greatest living conductor since Mahler." The violin concerto was premiered at the ISCM Festival in Barcelona shortly after Berg's death; Webern was to be the conductor there, but at the last moment he found himself unable to. Webern later wrote to Herman Scherchen, who had conducted the work in his stead:
"To think that absolutely nobody should have understood me then! How I felt right after Berg's passing, and that I was simply not up to the emotions aroused by the task of giving the first performance of his last work -- so soon after his death!
"Right up to the last moment I hoped to be able to stand it. But I was not to succeed."
This recording is from the English premier of the work, about two weeks after the Barcelona concert. Webern is leading the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Louis Krasner, the soloist and commissioner of this work, recalls Berg's response when he first suggested a violin concerto:
"The Master's reaction was not unfriendly but he seemed surprised at the idea. The conversation that followed was quite lively: 'You are a young violinist in the beginnings of a prominent concert career', he told me. 'What you require for your programs are brilliant compositions by Wieniawski and Vieuxtemps -- you know, that is not my kind of music!' My response was not difficult to conceive: 'Meister - Beethoven and Mozart also wrote Violin Concertos.' 'Ah ya,' he said softly and smiled. I pursued my momentary vantage and spoke on: 'The attacking criticism of 12-tone music everywhere is that this music is only cerebral and without feeling or emotion. If you undertake to write a Violin Concerto, it certainly will have to be a very serious, deliberate, and communicative work for the violin -- for the violin is a lyrical and songful instrument which I know you love. Think of what it would mean for the whole Schoenberg Movement if a new Alban Berg Violin Concerto should succeed in demolishing the antagonism of the "cerebral, no emotion" cliché and argument." |