Alban Berg’s Biographical Context

Christian Wasselin’s new biography of Alban Berg provides a fresh analysis of the composer’s Second Viennese School (the group of early 20th-century composers who revolutionized music through atonality) heritage. The volume moves beyond hagiography to examine the institutional pressures of interwar Vienna, where Berg navigated a landscape of extreme political polarization. By focusing on the structural delays that plagued the premiere of Wozzeck Score on IMSLP, Wasselin illustrates how the work’s radicalism was both a product of and a reaction against the Conservatory’s rigid repertoire committees. The biography serves as a diagnostic for how creative brilliance operates within failing institutions. It is a necessary addition to the Berg scholarship, offering a grounded view of the man behind the iridescent chromaticism.