To the Memory of an Angel   BERG, BACH et al

In the past we have collaborated with the Ensemble WirkWerk, with the focus on premieres and first performances. This year we are going a step further: The four musicians will become a small orchestra, devoting themselves not only to a classic of new music but also to solo works of early music. The main item is Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, which he dedicated to the Memory of an Angel – namely Manon Gropius, the daughter of Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius, who died of polio at the age of 18. The first part describes the life of Manon Gropius in a style that is sometimes gentle or dreamy and sometimes – with the integration of a Carinthian folk song – more lively. In the second part, Berg quotes Bach’s chorale from the cantata O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort BWV 60. The text Es ist genug; Herr, wenn es dir gefällt, so spanne mich doch aus! (It is enough: Lord, if it pleases you, then release me!) is to be found in the lament of the solo violin. Like Bach, Alban Berg believed in the symbolism of numbers, and concealed such arcane symbols in the score of his Violin Concerto. The programme also includes parts of Bach’s Six Suites for Violoncello solo BWV 1007-1012 and of his Sonatas and Partitas for Violin solo BWV 1001-1006.

Annette Fritz – violin
Valerie Fritz – violoncello
Ensemble WirkFabrik
Conductor: Christian Spitzenstätter