Lyric Suite for String Quartet - INSCRIBED TO JEANNE DUBOST WITH NOTE FROM THE COMPOSER

Leipzig: Universal. 1927. Score to the composer's twelve-tone suite for string quartet, signed with a long inscription to Jeanne Dubost, the hostess of the salon where the piece was premiered. 12mo (18.3 x 13.4 cm). 83 pp. Inscription translated from the German: "To Madame Dubost, Even more than the fact that the first performance of this suite and of the songs took place in your wonderful salon on March 22, 1928, I will never forget that through this I and my art -- until now foreign to France -- have found a home in Paris. For this I will be grateful all my life. Alban Berg." Spine somewhat split, scattered stains and light toning to wrappers, overall very good with the signed page partly creased, else fine. A copy of historic importance.

Berg's six-movement "Lyric Suite" for string quartet was composed between 1925 and 1926 using methods derived from Schoenberg's twelve tone technique. Jeanne Dubost played an important role in establishing the reputation of the Lyric Suite: it was in her salon that the piece was performed for the first time, on March 22, 1928. The quartet was paired with several songs, with Berg himself at the piano. "It was wonderful in Paris, all the more terrible in Zurich," the composer wrote to Adorno in July 1928 (Theodor W. Adorno & Alban Berg: Correspondence 1925-1935, 2005, p. 122).

One of Berg's most fascinating works, the Lyric Suite contains encoded messages of love to his mistress, Hanna Fuchs-Robettin. Berg uses the signature motif A-Bb-H-F, a combination of his initials and hers, and also quotes a melody from Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony in movement four which originally set the words "You are mine own." (14985)

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Printed Music

Autograph Letter

Signed Document/Item

Classical Music

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