ANAM: The Alchemy of Alban Berg

Please note that in a change to the previously advertised program, Roger Benedict will be conducting the Kammerkonzert, rather than Jeffrey Means. ANAM thank you for your understanding. Please note that the repertoire remains the same. 

ANAM musicians embark on a performance tracing and uncovering the musical world of Alban Berg — a composer who stood between centuries, traditions and ideas.

The program begins with Berg’s Seven Early Songs, a work written in his twenties and steeped in the lush sound world of Mahler and Strauss. The Piano Sonata, op. 1 follows — a compact, restless work that already hints at the intensity and precision of his later style. Berg’s arrangement of Johann Strauss II’s waltz Wein, Weib und Gesäng peels back the glitter of old Vienna to reveal something stranger and more intimate beneath.

The concert closes with the Kammerkonzert, op. 8, written for his mentors Schoenberg and Webern. Directed by conductor and violist Roger Benedict, it is in its intricate textures and fierce lyricism that lies the “alchemy” of Berg’s art: the turning of emotion into form, and form back into emotion.

Alban BERG Sieben frühe Lieder
BERG Piano Sonata, op. 1
Johann STRAUSS II arr. BERG Wein, Weib und Gesäng, op. 333
BERG Kammerkonzert, op. 8

Roger Benedict conductor
Timothy Young (Resident Faculty, Head of Piano) piano
Sophie Blades (guest) soprano *
ANAM Musicians 

* Sophie Blades is a 2026 Melba Artist and appears courtesy of the Melba Opera Trust