A. Berg, Autograph letter signed about "Wozzeck", to Rudolf Schäfke, 3 August 1926

BERG, ALBAN

Autograph letter signed ("Alban Berg"), to Rudolf Schäfke, ABOUT "WOZZECK", 3 August 1926

praising him effusively for his insightful article concerning his opera, noting that it is the most accurate of all the many reviews regarding the relationship of Bretzner's fragment to his opera text, marvelling that he, someone who does not belong to his close artistic circle, should have been able to reveal the secrets of his music, asking him to visit him if should come to Vienna, and requesting him to arrange for the publishers of his Melos article to send him a couple of issues, one of which he would like to annotate with a few corrections and send back to him ("...Ein Zeitungsausschnittbüro sendet mir Ihren Wozzeck Artikel. Es drängt mich, Ihnen dafür zu danken u. zu sagen, wie ganz besonders mich dieser u. wie freudig er mich überrascht hat...")

3 pages, 8vo (21 x 13.3cm), with Berg's address-stamp to first page ("Alban Berg Wien XIII/I..."), Vienna, 3 August 1926, rust-stain from a paper-clip to first page

A good letter about Berg's operatic masterpiece, Wozzeck. The article referred to by Berg in the letter, written by the critic Rudolf Schäfke, had appeared in the Berlin newspaper Melos in May 1926, five months after the premiere of the opera in the German capital. The composer praised Schäfke's "brilliant and accurate" analysis of Wozzeck in a letter to Theodor Adorno (c.13 August 1926).