Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble

Alban Berg (1885-1935), Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 5, 1913

Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer of the “second Viennese school” which initially produced music in the late-Romantic style but later moved to embrace a trend away from “tonal music”, specifically with the “serial twelve-tone technique” defined by his mentor Arnold Schönberg. As the idea of a “key” or “tonality” of a piece of music became more fluid was increasingly stretched through the late 19thcentury, this new trend basically abandoned the idea of a tonality altogether. However, Berg did maintain some Romantic lyricism in his works, which tends to give his compositions more “emotion” than those of his contemporaries.

The Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 5 consists of four separate contrasting miniatures and is one of Berg’s earliest-published works. The work is dedicated to the Society for Private Musical Performances in Vienna and to its founder and president, Arnold Schönberg. 

Alexander von Zemlinsky (1971-1942), Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, Op. 5, 1896

Alexander von Zemlinsky was an Austrian composer whose parents came from diverse families of both staunch Roman Catholic and of Jewish backgrounds. His entire family converted to Judaism, and Alexander was born and raised Jewish.  He studied piano from a young age and was admitted to the Vienna Conservatory in 1884 at age 13. After achieving high acclaim for his pianistic talents, he studied composition with mentors including Anton Bruckner through 1892 when he began writing music for publication.  His strong supporters included Brahms and his close friend Arnold Schönberg (who also became his brother-in-law when Schönberg married Zemlinsky’s sister). Much of his career was spent in Prague and Berlin, but he did return to Vienna in 1933. In 1938 he fled from the Nazi regime to the United States where he died in 1942.

Zemlinsky was mainly known for his operas and orchestral songs with their opulent late Romantic orchestration. The Trio Opus 3 which will be heard tonight was an early work and was written in 1896. Zemlinsky owes a great deal to his first important role model, Johannes Brahms, as far as inflection and instrumentation are concerned. It was Brahms himself who enthusiastically recommended the trio to his publisher Simrock, following the first performance in Vienna. Consisting of three contrasting movements, it is a hauntingly-beautiful work which is very much grounded in the Romantic style with luscious melodies and complex harmonies.

Felix Weingartner (1863-1942), Quintet for Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano, Op. 50, 1911

Paul Felix Weingartner was an Austrian conductor, composer and pianist. Amidst his music studies, he briefly studied philosophy in Leipzig before devoting himself entirely to music. In 1883 he entered the Weimar Conservatory where he was one of Franz Liszt’s last pupils. Best remembered as an important conductor, Weingartner succeeded Gustav Mahler at the helm of the Vienna Imperial Opera in 1904 through 1910 and retained the position of conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic until 1927.  His repertoire as a composer is quite diverse and includes symphonies, operas, and various chamber works.

The Quintet, Op. 50, was written in 1911 when the composer was at the height of his career.  The clarinet is given the leading part in the work, and the quintet has been praised for its innovation. It includes liberal use of chromatics, a distinct quasi-antique “tempo di menuetto” including a theme reminiscent of a folk song, an adagio which is rhapsodic in manner and Hungarian in coloring, and a spirited rondo finale.

Program notes by Larry Reed