The Alban Berg Quartett was a

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

founded in Vienna, Austria in 1970, named after

Alban Berg Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( , ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...

Members

Beginnings

The Berg Quartet was founded in 1970 by four young professors of the

Vienna Academy of Music en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, and made its debut in the

Vienna Konzerthaus The Konzerthaus is a concert hall located in Vienna, Austria, which opened in 1913. It is situated in the third district just at the edge of the first district in Vienna. Since it was founded it has always tried to emphasise both traditional and ...

in autumn 1971. The widow of the composer Alban Berg, Helene, attended an early private concert after which she gave her consent for the quartet to use her husband's name.

Career

The Quartet's repertoire was centered on the Viennese classics, but with a serious emphasis on the 20th century. It was the stated goal of the quartet to include at least one modern work in each performance. Their repertoire spanned from Early Classicism,

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

, to the

Second Viennese School The Second Viennese School (german: Zweite Wiener Schule, Neue Wiener Schule) was the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils, particularly Alban Berg and Anton Webern, and close associates in early 20th-century Vienna. ...

(Alban Berg,

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stea ...

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...

and embraced many contemporary composers. This took expression not the least in personal statements by composers like

Witold Lutosławski Witold Roman Lutosławski (; 25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music, he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szyman ...

and

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...

, of whom the former said: "Personally I am indebted to the Alban Berg Quartet for an unforgettable event. Last year in Vienna, they played my quartet in a way such as will never be likely equaled." Following an invitation of

Walter Levin Walter Levin (December 6, 1924 – August 4, 2017) was the founder, first violinist, and guiding spirit of the LaSalle Quartet (active 1947–1987), which was known for its championing of contemporary composers, for its recordings of the Second V ...

(founder of the

LaSalle Quartet The LaSalle Quartet was a string quartet active from 1946 to 1987. It was founded by first violinist Walter Levin. The LaSalle's name is attributed to an apartment on LaSalle Street in Manhattan, where some of its members lived during the quarte ...

) the ABQ studied intensively for the better part of a year in the USA. The focus of their activities in Europe became annual concert cycles at the

Wiener Konzerthaus The Konzerthaus is a concert hall located in Vienna, Austria, which opened in 1913. It is situated in the third district just at the edge of the first district in Vienna. Since it was founded it has always tried to emphasise both traditional and ...

, at London's

Queen Elizabeth Hall The Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) is a music venue on the South Bank in London, England, that hosts classical, jazz, and avant-garde music, talks and dance performances. It was opened in 1967, with a concert conducted by Benjamin Britten. The ...

, the Frankfurt

Alte Oper Alte Oper (Old Opera) is a concert hall in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. It is located in the inner city, Innenstadt, within the banking district Bankenviertel. Today's Alte Oper was built in 1880 as the city's opera house, which was destro ...

, the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, the Philharmonic Hall in Cologne, the Zurich Opera, as well as regular concerts at most major halls and venues around the world (among them

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

, Concertgebow Amsterdam,

Berliner Philharmonie The Berliner Philharmonie () is a concert hall in Berlin, Germany, and home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Philharmonie lies on the south edge of the city's Tiergarten and just west of the former Berlin Wall. The Philharmonie is on ...

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

Teatro Colón The Teatro Colón (Spanish: ''Columbus Theatre'') is the main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acousti ...

Suntory Hall The is a concert venue in the central Akasaka district of Tokyo, Japan. Part of the Ark Hills complex, it consists of a main concert hall, widely considered one of the finest in the world for its acoustics — indeed Herbert von Karajan called i ...

, etc.) and all the major music festivals such as the Berliner Festwochen, the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

IRCAM IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of avant garde and electro-acoustical art music. It is ...

in the

Pompidou Centre The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

, the

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (English: Florence Musical May) is an annual Italian arts festival in Florence, including a notable opera festival, under the auspices of the Opera di Firenze. The festival occurs between late April into June annuall ...

, and the

Salzburg Festival The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amad ...

. The ABQ is an Honorary Member of the Wiener Konzerthaus and Associate Artist of the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...

London.

Recordings

Recordings were an important part of the work of the Alban Berg Quartet. Among the most famous recordings projects are the complete string quartets by

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

(

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

, which has sold more than a million copies), Brahms (

Teldec Teldec (Telefunken-Decca Schallplatten GmbH) is a German record label in Hamburg, Germany. Today the label is a property of Warner Music Group. History Teldec was a producer of (first) shellac and (later) vinyl records. The Teldec manufacturing ...

and EMI), the late Haydn (EMI), the late Mozart (Teldec and EMI) and the late Schubert (EMI), but their repertoire on disc stretched further to Mendelssohn, Schumann, Janácek,

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

, Berg, Webern, Bartók, von Einem, Lutosławski, Rihm, Berio, Haubenstock-Ramati to Schnittke and beyond. Many of the latter, contemporary, composers wrote works specially dedicated to the ABQ. After EMI released a live recording of their 1985 Carnegie Hall debut, the quartet preferred making live recordings for the last 20 years of its existence. Among them was—following their original studio Beethoven cycle from the late 70s and early 80s—a new Beethoven String Quartet cycle recorded live at the Konzerthaus during the Vienna Festival in 1989 and released on CD, video, and DVD. The Alban Berg Quartet recorded chamber music with some of the finest soloists of their time, including the piano quintets of

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

(with

Philippe Entremont Philippe Entremont (born 7 June 1934) is a French classical pianist and conductor. His recordings as a pianist include concertos by Tchaikovsky, Maurice Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saëns and others. Early life Philippe Entremont was born in ...

), Schubert and Brahms (with

Elisabeth Leonskaja Elisabeth Leonskaja (born 23 November 1945) (In Russian: Елизавета Ильинична Леонская) is a Soviet and Austrian pianist. She was born to a family of Jewish and Polish extraction living in Tbilisi, then the capital of t ...

) and Dvoràk (with

Rudolf Buchbinder Rudolf Buchbinder (born 1 December 1946, Litoměřice, Czechoslovakia) is an Austrian classical pianist. Biography Buchbinder studied with Bruno Seidlhofer at the Vienna Academy of Music. In 1965, he made a tour of North and South Americas. In ...

), the Schubert

string quintet A string quintet is a musical composition for five string players. As an extension to the string quartet (two violins, a viola, and a cello), a string quintet includes a fifth string instrument, usually a second viola (a so-called "viola quintet" ...

(with

Heinrich Schiff Heinrich Schiff (18 November 1951 – 23 December 2016) was an Austrian cellist and conductor. Early life Heinrich Schiff was born on 18 November 1951 in Gmunden, Austria. His parents, Helga (née Riemann) and Helmut Schiff, were composers. He ...

), the Brahms clarinet quintet (with

Sabine Meyer Sabine Meyer (born 30 March 1959) is a German classical clarinetist. Biography Born in Crailsheim, Baden-Württemberg, Meyer began playing the clarinet at an early age. Her first teacher was her father, also a clarinetist. She studied with Otto ...

), and the Mozart piano quartets and the piano quintet arrangement of the concerto KV 414 (with

Alfred Brendel Alfred Brendel KBE (born 5 January 1931) is an Austrian classical pianist, poet, author, composer, and lecturer who is known particularly for his performances of Mozart, Schubert, Schoenberg, and Beethoven.Stephen Plaistow"Brendel, Alfred" ''G ...

). For their recordings, the ABQ received more than 30 international awards, among them the

Grand Prix du Disque Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and co ...

, the

Deutscher Schallplattenpreis The Deutscher Schallplattenpreis was a prize that the awarded from 1963 through 1992. Its successor is the Echo Music Prize Echo Music Prize (stylised as ECHO, ) was an accolade by the , an association of recording companies of Germany to recog ...

, the Japanese Grand Prix, the

Edison Award The Edison Award is an annual Dutch music prize awarded for outstanding achievements in the music industry. It is comparable to the American Grammy Award. The Edison award itself is a bronze replica of a statuette of Thomas Edison, designed by ...

, and the

Gramophone Award The Gramophone Classical Music Awards, launched in 1977, are one of the most significant honours bestowed on recordings in the classical record industry. They are often viewed as equivalent to or surpassing the American Grammy award, and refer ...

. Beyond recording, the ABQ collaborated regularly with the likes of

Maurizio Pollini Maurizio Pollini (born 5 January 1942) is an Italian pianist. He is known for performances of compositions by Beethoven, Chopin and Debussy, among others. He has also championed and performed works by contemporary composers such as Pierre Boulez ...

András Schiff Sir András Schiff (; born 21 December 1953) is a Hungarian-born British classical pianist and conductor, who has received numerous major awards and honours, including the Grammy Award, Gramophone Award, Mozart Medal, and Royal Academy of Musi ...

, and

Tabea Zimmermann Tabea Zimmermann (born 8 October 1966) is a German violist. Born in Lahr, she began learning to play the viola at the age of three, and commenced piano studies at age five. At the age of 13, she studied viola with Ulrich Koch at the Conservator ...

World premieres

The composers that wrote string quartets for the Alban Berg Quartet include, in chronological order, Fritz Leitermeyer,

Erich Urbanner Erich Urbanner (born 26 March 1936) is an Austrian composer and teacher. Biography Born in Innsbruck, Urbanner studied from 1955 to 1961 at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, in the composition classes of Karl Schiske and Han ...

(Quartets No. 1 and 4), Roman Haubenstock-Ramati (Quartets Nos.1 and 2), Gottfried von Einem (Quartet No.1), Wolfgang Rihm (Quartet No.4 and "Requiem for Thomas"),

Alfred Schnittke Alfred Garrievich Schnittke (russian: Альфре́д Га́рриевич Шни́тке, link=no, Alfred Garriyevich Shnitke; 24 November 1934 – 3 August 1998) was a Russian composer of Jewish-German descent. Among the most performed and re ...

(Quartet No.4),

Zbigniew Bargielski Zbigniew Bargielski (born 21 January 1937, in Łomża), is a Polish composer and teacher. His works have been performed in many European countries, the United States, Australia and South America. On 24 February 2011 he was awarded by the Minister o ...

("Les temps ardente"), Luciano Berio ("Notturno"), and

Kurt Schwertsik Kurt Schwertsik (born 25 June 1935) is an Austrian contemporary composer. He is known for creating the "Third Viennese School" and spreading contemporary classical music. Life Schwertsik was born in Vienna. A pupil of Joseph Marx and Karl Schis ...

("Adieu Satie").

Teaching

From 1993 until 2012, the members of the Alban Berg Quartet were lecturing at the

Cologne Conservatory Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...

in succession of the Amadeus Quartet. Quartets who studied with the Alban Berg Quartet include the

Cuarteto Casals The Cuarteto Casals (''Casals Quartet'') is a Spanish string quartet based at l'Auditori in Barcelona, where all four members reside and teach at the Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya. Formation The Cuarteto Casals was founded at the Rei ...

, the Schumann Quartett, the Amber Quartet (China), the

Fauré Quartet The Fauré Quartet is a German piano quartet, named after Gabriel Fauré. Founded in 1995, they have performed internationally and recorded, including works written for them by composers such as Volker David Kirchner and Toshio Hosokawa. History ...

, the Aviv Quartet, the , the Amaryllis Quartet, and in particular the

Belcea Quartet The Belcea Quartet is a string quartet, formed in 1994, under the leadership of violinist Corina Belcea. History The quartet was formed while its members were studying at the Royal College of Music in London. Whilst there, they were coached by t ...

, and the

Artemis Quartet The Artemis Quartet is a German string quartet, founded in 1989 in Lübeck, and now based in Berlin. The quartet is named for the Greek goddess of hunting and the wilderness. History The first members of the Artemis Quartet, Wilken Ranck, Isab ...

Retirement

In 2005, Thomas Kakuska died of cancer. In accordance with his wish, the ABQ continued performing with Isabel Charisius, a student of his. But as cellist Valentin Erben said, "There was a big rupture in our hearts" and the quartet retired in 2008. The concert in memoriam Thomas Kakuska in the Wiener Konzerthaus' Großer Saal featured a who's-who of classical music, including an orchestra of friends and students of the quartet. Among them were

Angelika Kirchschlager Angelika Kirchschlager (born 24 November 1965, Salzburg) is an Austrian mezzo-soprano opera and lieder singer. Career Kirchschlager began her musical training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where she studied percussion and piano. In 1984, she w ...

Irvine Arditti Irvine Arditti (born 8 February 1953) is a British violinist, as well as the leader and founder of the Arditti Quartet. Biography Arditti attended the Central Foundation Boys' School in London before continuing his studies at the Royal Academy ...

Magdalena Kožená Magdalena Kožená (also Lady Rattle; ; born 26 May 1973) is a Czech mezzo-soprano. Early life Kožená was born in Brno in Czechoslovakia. Both her parents had come originally from Bohemia, to the west. She was born one of the two daughters o ...

Thomas Quasthoff Thomas Quasthoff (born 9 November 1959) is a German bass-baritone. Quasthoff has a range of musical interest from Bach cantatas, to lieder, and solo jazz improvisations. Born with severe birth defects caused by thalidomide, Quasthoff is , and has ...

Helmut Deutsch Helmut Erich Deutsch (born 24 December 1945) is an Austrian classical pianist, specialising in chamber music and lieder accompaniment. Deutsch was born in Vienna, where he studied piano, composition and musicology at the Vienna Music Academy f ...

, Alois Posch,

, and

Sir Simon Rattle Sir Simon Denis Rattle (born 19 January 1955) is a British-German conductor. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–1998). Rattle was principal ...

; the orchestra was conducted by

Claudio Abbado Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony ...

. After a worldwide farewell tour in July 2008, the ABQ ended its career.http://guenterpichler.com/webgal_abq/images/abq5.jpg

Literature and films

* ''DIE ZEIT Klassik-Edition v.16 , Alban Berg Quartett.'' Die Zeit, Hamburg 2006, . *

Dieter Rexroth Dieter Rexroth (born 6 March 1941) is a German musicologist and dramaturge. Life and achievements Born in Dresden, Rexroth studied musical composition, composition, conducting, musicology, German studies and philosophy at the universities of Col ...

, Rainer Wilker (editors): ''Ludwig van Beethoven. The String Quartets. Alban Berg Quartet'' Alter Oper, Frankfurt, Cologne Philharmonic, and Berliner Festspiele, 1987. * Franz Schubert: "Death and the Maiden" (with

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (28 May 1925 – 18 May 2012) was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period, best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, ...

) directed by

Bruno Monsaingeon Bruno Monsaingeon (; born 5 December 1943) is a French filmmaker, writer, and violinist. He has made a number of documentary films about famous twentieth-century musicians, including Glenn Gould, Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, Piotr Anderszews ...

(EMI Records) * "The Alban Berg Quartett in St. Petersburg 1991" Unitel Classica

References

External links

*
Guenter Pichler's Web site
{{Authority control Musical groups established in 1970 Austrian string quartets EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists