Kammerkonzert

The "Kammerkonzert für Klavier und Geige mit 13 Bläsern" (Chamber Concerto for Piano and Violin with 13 Wind Instruments) is a piece of chamber music composed by Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1923 and 1925. The short score was completed on 9 Feb 1925; the full score was finished on 23 July 1925. The work was premiered on 19 Mar 1927.

The work is scored for piano and violin soloists, accompanied by a wind ensemble of 13 players: piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn, Eb clarinet, A clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, trumpet, two French horns, and trombone.

The work is in three movements:

# Thema scherzoso con variazioni
# Adagio
# Rondo ritmico con introduzione

Thema scherzoso con variazioni

The first movement involves mainly the piano and the 13 wind instruments (with a brief appearance by the solo violin). For the "Theme" of the movement, Berg uses German notation to musically spell out the names of himself and his two friends and fellow members of the Second Viennese School:

ArnolD SCHönBErG - (A-D-Eb-C-B-Bb-E-G)

Anton WEBErn - (A-E-Bb-E)

AlBAn BErG - (A-B-A-Bb-E-G)

The work was composed for Arnold Schönberg's 50th birthday, and it is his "name" that Berg creates a 12-note row out of, prefixing it by the 'missing' notes of the chromatic scale. This theme is then treated to five variations, using the common manipulations of twelve-tone technique:

Var. 1 - Prime

Var. 2 - Retrograde

Var. 3 - Inversion

Var. 4 - Retrograde-Inversion

Var. 5 - Prime

Adagio

The second movement is a large palindrome, using primarily the Prime form of the row in the first half and the Retrograde row in the second half. The movement focuses primarily on the solo violin and 13 winds, though the turning point of the palindrome is marked by a brief appearance of the solo piano.

Rondo ritmico con introduzione

The third movement involves both soloists and the ensemble, and is a large rondo based on a returning rhythmic idea (rondos are typically based on a returning melodic idea). Berg layers material from the first and second movements on top of each other in this final movement. There is an extremely large repeat of almost 175 measures in the movement that is often omitted in performances and recordings.

Further Reading
*Headlam, D., "The music of Alban Berg" (Yale University Press, c1996)
*Jarman, D., "The Music of Alban Berg" (Faber & Faber, 1979)