To the Memory of an Angel

Alban Berg’s violin concerto is neither harsh nor cold; on the contrary, it is a powerful and moving work with a striking sadness and sensitivity. Then again, he wrote it ”to the memory of an angel”, a painful echo of emptiness. In contrast: Brahms’s animated, almost exuberant third symphony. It was written when Brahms was fifty years of age and unmarried, but is imbued with the life motto of the forthright Brahms “Frei aber froh”, free but happy.