Alban Berg and His World by Christopher Hailey (review)

Abstract

Reviews 201 and including theRomany people,and shouldproveinformative forgeneral and scholarly audiences alike.Itshowsthatlocalhistories offer important approaches tostudying Austria's Nazipast. Universityof Edinburgh Oliver Haag AlbanBerg andHisWorld. Ed.byChristopherHailey. Princeton, NJ andOxford: Princeton University Press, 2010.361pp.£20.95. isbn978-0-691-14856-4. As Leon Botsteinremarks in the concludingessayof thisveryfinevolume, AlbanBerghasbeenposthumously privileged in theexhaustive and sympathetic scrutiny to whichhis workhas been subjected(p. 299). One reasonforthis, as Christopher Haileycomments, maybe because Bergwas notonlythetrue centreof early-twentieth-century Viennesemusic,but also 'perhapsthe most thoroughly characteristic and all-embracing representative of this remarkable cultural environment* (p.29). Compiled fromworkinitiallypresentedin 2010 at the annual summer conference organizedat Bard College underthe aegis of Leon Botstein, the format ofthisvolumewillbe familiar to thoseacquaintedwiththeCambridge 'Companion* seriesdevotedto musicians and theirwiderculturaland political environment. Indeed,Haileyhimself contributed a notableessayto thevolume in thatserieseditedbyAnthony Poplein 1997.In his introductory essay'Berg's Worlds'he contributes a similarly elegantand thought-provoking introduction tothecomposer andhisartistic environment. Thiswasdominated bywhatBerg termed hisfive'Hausgötter', all figures deeplyrootedin theVienneseculture of hisday:KarlKraus,AdolfLoos,Peter Altenberg, ArnoldSchoenberg and Gustav Mahler. In Hailey 'sview, Berg's 'parochialism', hisrelentlessly Vienna-centric take on artand life, is actually thedefining factor in hisinternational appeal,justas itis withSchubert. The volumeconcludes with'AlbanBergand theMemory of Modernism', a tour-de-force from Botstein, whofinds there areinfact twoMahlers at thecoreofBerg'sidiosyncratic modernism. The first is thecomposer Gustav, whoseinfluence uponBergwasperhaps evenmoreprofound thanthatofhisother greatmusicalmentor, ArnoldSchoenberg. The secondis thecomposer's widow Almawho,Botstein arguesmostpersuasively, served as themany-sided modelfor thecentral character inBerg's incomplete operatic masterpiece Lulu. Sandwiched between theseoutstanding contributions comeHailey'stranslation ofarecently discovered literary work byBerg himself, thefragmentary Str indbergian drama'Nacht(Nokturn)', written around1915-17, andNickChadwick's translation of an important earlybiographical sketchof the composerby his infatuated tutor Hermann Watznauer. Thiswasfirst published in a curtailed form byBerg's nephewOtto Alban Bergin 1985alongsideMarkde Votos annotatedEnglish version of'AlbanBergzumGedenken', theBergMemorial Issueof23:EineWiener Musikzeitschrift, founded in 1932as a musicalcounterpart to Kraus'sDie Fackel. Thesestylish, erudite and idiomatic translations, although aimedatreaders with littleor no German,represent formidable additionsto the scholarly literature on thecomposer, in eachcase building impressively upontheGerman-language 202 Reviews source.Forthisreviewer, however, perhapsthemostarresting material comes in Margaret Notley's riveting documentation '1934, AlbanBerg,and theshadow of Politics:Documentsof a TroubledYear*. Hereone of thepervasive threads running through thisvolume - Berg's problematic stancevis-à-vis Jews - finally takescentrestage.Like Karl Kraus,thecomposerendedup as a supporter of theclerical-fascist Corporate Stateand,liketheJewish Kraus,the'Aryan'Berg adopteda position regarding the'Judenfrage' whichmanywillfindproblematic. Hisconcern nottobeconfused with theJewish cabaret composer Armin Bergmay seemalmostcomicaltoday, butwas obviously a sourceofrealanxiety toAlban, whowentoutofhiswayto ensurethattheNazi authorities werefully informed ofhisimpeccably Germanic bloodline.To quoteBotstein's somewhat unsettling phrase, AlbanBergcouldbe described as displaying a 'benign'anti-Semitism (p. 303).Benign ornot,itwassufficient todissuadeSchoenberg from completing Lulu, a taskfor which hewassupremely fitted. Berg's early deathin1935, agedfifty (also theageatwhichMahlerdied),robbedmusicofa towering talent butalso meant that hisposthumous reputation, unlikethat ofAnton Webern, couldnotbesullied byaccusations ofcomplicity withNationalSocialism. Oftheremaining items ofthecollection, twocomprise work that demands more technical musicalknowledge thantheessaysdiscussedhitherto. The Zemlinsky scholar andconductor Anthony Beaumont discussesBerg's magisterial useofthe orchestra, showing howmuchhelearnednotonlyfrom Mahlerand Schoenberg, butalsofrom Zemlinsky, Richard Strauss (for whomhehada morethansneaking admiration) andespecially FranzSchreker. Schreker isa figure whocropsuptime and againin thisbook,and it is clearthat,alongsideMahlerand Schoenberg, he playeda determining rolein Berg'sartistic development, bothmusically and theatrically. Douglas Jarman, the doyenof BritishBergians,discussesBerg's fondnessformusicalpalindromes, a reflection of the composer'sobsessive fascination withmysticism, numerology andNietzsche. In an exceptionally wideranging essayon portraits, identities andthedynamics ofseeinginBerg's operas, Sherry D. Leereveals howBerg's Luluistypical ofthevery Viennese preoccupation 'withthewaysin whichtheimageofthesubject, whether mirrored self-image orportrait, reflected or falsified a subjective interiority' (p.170). Throughout this essay, Lee'swork constantly reminds usthat itisBerg's multiple points ofreference, artistic, musical,literary, philosophical and quasiscientific , whichmakehima figure ofsuchdeepfascination, uniqueamongst Viennesemusicalmodernists in that hisappealhasbecomeuniversal. This essay,like thebook as a whole,can be recommended wholeheartedly bothto specialist musicians and musicologists and to all thoseinterested in the ramifications ofViennese culture inthefirst third ofthetwentieth century. Asthe editor remarks in hispreface, bydeflecting attention awayfrom thecentrality of Schoenberg in Berg's lifeandworkthisvolume'carries withitmorethana whiff ofrevisionism' (p. ix). However, therecan be no doubtthatin so doingitfully succeeds inreconnecting thecomposer tothewider context, theonlyoneinwhich theextent ofBerg's artistic achievement canbefully grasped. Universityof Edinburgh AndrewBarker ...