It's not British, but...Out of Vienna -Berg, Schulhoff and Webern

Ever since studying Alban Berg’s divine Violin Concerto at school, I have been an admirer of his music – with an exception: the two operas Wozzeck and Lulu. I have never quite managed to get my head around them. Berg is often cited as being the “acceptable face” of serialism, usually building bridges back to tonality, emotional narrative, and recognisable forms.

The six-movement Lyric Suite was completed during early October 1926. It is a definitive example of Berg’s ability to blend late-Romanticism with his personal adaptation of Schoenberg’s serialism. But it is not just a wonderful blend of tonal and atonal material; it also encodes a secret autobiographical programme, first fully revealed by the scholar George Perle. The work is understood to incorporate allusions to his affair with Hanna Fuchs. To this end, Berg used numerology, ciphered initials (A-B-H-F), and many hidden musical quotations. Unsurprisingly, the progress of this quartet covers a wide range: often anguished, sometimes ecstatic, clearly mirroring his clandestine relationship. Before Perle’s scholarship, a listener would hear this Suite as abstract modernist chamber music, with wildly varying emotions, but always bound by a strong structural logic. Understanding the Berg/Fuchs relationship simply adds a human touch: a series of “Intimate Letters” to his lover.

Briefly, Erwin Schulhoff was a Czech-Jewish composer and pianist who fused jazz, Dada, modernism, and late-Romanticism in his opus. He pioneered the treatment of jazz as a serious art form in Europe. He was (unsurprisingly) banned by the Nazi regime as musically degenerate. Tragically, his life and prolific career were cut short in 1942 at the Wülzburg concentration camp.

The Five Pieces for string quartet, WV 68 is full of parody and satire. It is essentially a dance suite which nods back to the Baroque model, with lots of subversive twists. In fact, it is really a pastiche of then-contemporary popular music: the opening Alla Valse viennese that is written in a paradoxical 4/4; a “wonky” Serenata with all strings muted; a wild Alla czeca polka with eccentric rhythmic accents; and the most sensual moment, the “sexy, slinky” Alla Tango milonga. The ‘Suite’ ends with a furious Alla Tarantella. Schulhoff dedicated the work to his colleague Darius Milhaud. It was premiered at the Salzburg International Society for Contemporary Music on 8 August 1924.

Anton Webern is not everyone’s cup of tea. His music is compressed, pointillistic, and often emotionally severe; many listeners find its brevity, silence, and atonality challenging rather than immediately inviting. I have been listening to him on and off for more than half a century, and I am still not sure that I “get it.” This new disc, however, presents a wonderful piece that could be labelled “entry level Webern.” Langsamer Satz (literally “Slow Movement”) emerges from 1905, long before he began adopting Schoenberg’s twelve-tone “method.” It unfolds as a love song written for one Wilhelmine Mörtl, his cousin and later his wife. Stylistically, it owes much more to Brahms, Mahler, and Zemlinsky than to any atonalist. It is conceived in modified sonata form with three themes; there is warmth in the harmonies, expansive melodies, and expressive climaxes. It is so different from his “mature” compositions. This is a heartbreakingly beautiful work.

A different air is breathed in Webern’s freely atonal Five Movements for string quartet, op.5, completed in 1909. By now, he was nearing the end of his apprenticeship with Schoenberg. He stated that the inspiration was the death of his mother in 1906. Here there are no Romantic gestures: these miniatures are compressed to the barest of essentials. It is a fragile sound of isolated notes, half-heard whispers, and sudden explosions of colour. Webern uses a variety of techniques to create his sound world: harmonics, mutes, novel or rarely used instrumental techniques, and silence. The concept of “Perpetual Variation” is inherent, avoiding any sense of repetition or recapitulation in a traditional sense.

Overall, this Quartet is an exercise in gnomic intensity, where every single note carries the weight of an entire movement. Listened to without the preconceptions of tradition, this is a wonderfully nuanced piece of German Expressionism.

Founded in Berlin in 2019, the Leonkoro Quartet achieved a near-unprecedented sweep of the competition circuit in 2022. They won first prize and nine special awards at the Wigmore Hall Competition, followed immediately by top honours at Bordeaux. Mentored by Alfred Brendel and the Artemis Quartet, they have since collected the 2024 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and 2026 Gramophone Editor’s Choice for February.

The liner notes, written by Nicolas Derny, give a good introduction to all four quartet. They are printed in English, French, and German. The recording is outstanding.

This new recording by the Leonkoro Quartet brings clarity, character, and emotional integrity to three strikingly different modernist voices (four pieces), offering a satisfying introduction to each of these remarkable works.

Track Listing:
Alban Berg (1885-1935)
Lyric Suite (1926)
Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942)
Five Pieces for string quartet, WV 68 (1923-24)
Anton Webern (1883-1945)
Five Movements for string quartet, op.5 (1909); Langsamer Satz (1905)
Leonkoro Quartet: Jonathan Schwarz (violin); Emiri Kakiuchi (violin); Mayu Konoe (viola); Lukas Schwarz (cello)
rec. March 2025, Reitstadel, Neumarkt, Germany
Alpha Classics ALPHA 1196

With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was first published.