Alban Berg was an Austrian composer associated with the Second Viennese School that also included composers Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern. While fiercely modern, Berg’s music is a mix between 19th century Romanticism and Schoenberg school of twelve-tone composition, making Berg the most accessible of these challenging composers.

While I am a huge fan of his opera Wozzeck, I would admit his marvelous Violin Concerto is the place to start for the novice. It was composed in 1935 and was Berg’s last completed work. While Berg is consider by most to be a atonal composer the concerto, despite its modernity and dissonance, is perceived by my ears as a very tonal piece. His two movement is a feast of melodic but sometimes turbulent interaction between violin and orchestra. This particular performance was the first recording of the concerto. The violinist is Louis Krasner for whom the composition was commissioned. The performance is from December of 1940 and is played by the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Artur Rodzinski. This is another fine transfer by F. Reeder from the original 78rpm album and is in the public domain. The MP3 bitrate is only 64kbps but it is still excellent sound quality for these old acetate discs.

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