Wilhelm Georg Berger (born 4 December 1929,

Rupea Rupea (german: Reps; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Räppes''; hu, Kőhalom, lit=mound of rocks; la, Ripa) is a town in Brașov County in Transylvania, Romania. It administers one village, Fișer (''Schweischer''; ''Sövénység''), which has a fortif ...

; died 8 March 1993, Bucharest) was a Romanian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, musicologist, violist and conductor.

Biography

Berger was born in

, Romania. He learned to play the violin and viola under the instruction of Cecilia Nitulescu-Lupu, Anton Adrian Sarvaş, and Alexandru Rădulescu. He was a violist with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and was also a member of the Romanian Composer Association

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 ...

Works

Berger had a prolific career as a composer. Among his numerous compositions were 24

symphonies A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

, 21 string quartets,

oratories Public speaking, also called oratory or oration, has traditionally meant the act of speaking face to face to a live audience. Today it includes any form of speaking (formally and informally) to an audience, including pre-recorded speech deliver ...

sonata Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cant ...

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typi ...

s, and

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

and mass pieces, a number of which garnered him notable awards. He won the Prince Rainier III Composition Award in Monaco for a violin sonata in 1964, and First Prize in

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

in 1965 for his Sixth String Quartet. One of his violin concertos earned him the First Prize in Brussels in 1966. Several of his works are published by the Romanian record label Electrecord, such as his Tenth Symphony. His musicological work consists of, among others, a series of books about the artistic qualities of sonatas, another series about string quartets, a guidebook for concertos and books about classical composition theory. 1929 births 1993 deaths Transylvanian Saxon people Romanian people of German descent Romanian classical composers Romanian classical violists Romanian conductors (music) Male conductors (music) Romanian musicologists 20th-century conductors (music) 20th-century composers 20th-century musicologists People from Rupea 20th-century male musicians 20th-century violists {{Romania-composer-stub