Lyric Suite

Work for string quartet in six movements by Alban Berg, composed 1925–26 and first performed in Vienna, Austria, on 8 January 1927. Movements 2, 3, and 4 were arranged for string orchestra and first performed in Berlin, Germany, on 31 January 1929, conducted by Jascha Horenstein. Berg quotes from Tristan and Alexander von Zemlinksy's Lyric Symphony and bases the work's note-row on the name of Hanna Robettin-Fuchs, with whom he had an affair. An alternative vocal finale, using a translation of Charles Baudelaire's ‘De profundis clamavi’ by Stefan George, was first performed in New York, USA, on 1 November 1979.