Introducing the Alban Berg bottle-opener

Introducing the Alban Berg bottle-opener

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norman lebrecht

June 18, 2016

Vienna’s memorial to Alban Berg will be dedicated in the Herbert von Karajan Platz on Monday.

berg memorial

 

It can open three beers at once.

Comments

  • John Borstlap says:

    Hilarious…… The ‘monument’ had been anounced in November 2015, and it was said to honour not only Berg, but the entire Schoenberg club (Schoenberg, Webern, Berg) plus Mahler.

    http://subterraneanreview.blogspot.nl/2015/11/a-monument-for-early-modernists.html

    • Respect says:

      Obviously, you’re the only one who gets your jokes. Do you sit at home and laugh at your “wit”?

      1: I’d stay silent if I were you: Berg could achieve more with four notes than your entire lifetime’s work.

      2: having heard one of the brave sufferers who actually bothered to play your tripe and post it on YouTube, it seems to be typical of you that complain about the pianist instead of falling to your knees, weeping with gratitude.

      • John Borstlap says:

        As Mr B’s PA, I am happy to confirm that we receive an average of 50-60 fan letters a day with strong requests to continue contributing to SD. Further, I am quite impressed about the range of this commenter’s knowledge, since even the staff at this place doesn’t quite know a fraction of Mr B’s life time’s work, let alone the whole of it. Not that we are burning with desire to get to know it, we aren’t much into classical music. (There must be a catalogue somewhere here, but I fear we used it for the pizza oven.) Also I should not forget to mention that Mr B refuses to put his many orchestral performances on You Tube because of the supposed lack of audio quality. (We don’t complain!) As for humour, we also don’t find all that stuff very funny, as doesn’t Mr B, he never laughs when I read his comments back to him, but sinks in pensive reflection.
        Sally

  • Peter says:

    Nice one. Twelve rings are the foundation. Three eruptions out of it. But gravity pulling them back.

  • Robert Holmén says:

    It’s the thought that counts. What would a proper memorial to them look like anyway?

  • John Borstlap says:

    This is surely one of Norman’s wittiest presentations…. Every time I see the picture I have to laugh (without regard for Respect).

  • Cyril Blair says:

    It’s ugly, tacky, and uninspired, but nor would something modeled after Rodin be appropriate. Design is supposed to be fresh, new, innovative.

    • John Borstlap says:

      20C art has been driven by the urge to be fresh, new and innovative (although these are three times saying the same), and this drive has led to the complete nonsense of concept art and Alban Berg Bottle Openers. The work of Rodin however, has always been fresh, new and innovative but in another way, and will be all these things long into the future. Maybe there is something wrong with our consciousness of history?

  • Pianofortissimo says:

    It seems to fit the music of Schoenberg as well as a painting of Antoine Watteau fits an aria by Rameau. Very appropriate, indeed.

  • Eric Snodgrass says:

    This piece is a real Lulu!

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