Berg: Lyric Suite - Wellesz: Sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Op. 52

Though he was a member of the legendarily difficult Second Viennese School, Alban Berg’s music connects with the heart as much as the head. The Emerson Quartet give a moving performance of his Lyric Suite. Joined by Renée Fleming, they offer a ravishing performance of Viennese émigré Egon Wellesz’s five sonnet settings, a series that ends with the haunting “Mir scheint, das Angesicht der Welt verging.” The miniature encore by Eric Zeisl is similarly breathtaking.