Isaac Stern, New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein - Alban Berg & Belá Bartók Violin Concertos (Remastered) (2022)

Early in 1935, the American violinist Louis Krasner suggested to Berg that he write a violin concerto, but Berg, involved with the orchestration of his opera Lulu, was not then interested in a new project. However, the death from poliomelytis of his young friend Manon Gropius, daughter of Mahler’s widow, that spring so saddened him that he decided to compose a concerto as a memorial to her. Te score was finished on August 11, 1935 – record time for the slow-working, meticulous Berg. Dedicated ‘to the memory of an angel’ the Violin Concerto was to be his last completed work, for on December 24 he died of septicemia of the age of fifty. Krasner gave the world premiere on April 19, 1936, in Barcelona, under Hermann Scherchen.

Tracklist
01. Berg: Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel": I. Andante - Allegretto
02. Berg: Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel": II. Allegro (ma sempre rubato) - Adagio
03. Bartók: Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra No. 2, Sz. 90: I. Lassù (Moderato) - Mäßig
04. Bartók: Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra No. 2, Sz. 90: II. Friss (Allegro moderato) - Gemächlich
05. Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2, Sz. 112: I. Allegro non troppo
06. Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2, Sz. 112: II. Andante tranquillo - Allegro scherzando - Tempo primo
07. Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2, Sz. 112: III. Allegro molto