Alban Berg spent his whole life writing opera, and both the Lyric Suite and the String Quartet are no exception. Though he was a student (and properly worshipful disciple) of Arnold Schoenberg, he was always bent toward the theatre. Both the early String Quartet, with its post-Wagnerian epic emotional sweep, and the more well-known Lyric Suite show a composer learning and refining his expressive (as well as musical) techniques. Something Berg did take away from his master was a cabalistic “number play” approach to music–the Lyric Suite is well documented as a secret diary and encoded love letter to Hanna Fuchs. In 1977, after the death of Berg’s widow, it was also discovered that the aching lyrical line actually was a setting of Baudelaire’s poem De Profundis Clamavi. Here, for the first time, the Pražák Quartet (joined by the exquisite and appropriate soprano Vanda Tabery) offers the Lyric Suite with sung text. The result: spectacular.
Lovers of Berg’s music will be thrilled with this playing, which is a far cry from the plinks and pings usually involved with performances of the music from the Second Viennese School. Quite the contrary, the Pražák takes Berg for the romantic he truly was, without applying insincere schmaltz. These musicians have a gift for direct and communicative playing, cutting to the heart of the matter: from the opening flutter of the String Quartet to the small and elegant master-crafting of Webern’s Op. 28, they offer solid, dependable, respectable, and above all gorgeous performances. They understand the music rather than being able to explain the tone-rows and precepts.
If this sort of music intimidates you, or if you have found it off-puttingly inaccessible and ugly, this disc offers a chance to form a second opinion. Here you will find notes transformed through interpretation–which, after all, is what real lovers of this or any other kind of music really want. Rather than listen to this disc because of its potential to edify or enlighten, or because it’s something you ought to hear because it’s somehow good for you (a musical bran muffin), you should just listen to it for its powerful performances of moving and beautiful music. [12/23/2001]
