Wilhelm Berger

[eschiss1]

No joy on the piano sonata, I suppose- thanks though.

[Mark Thomas]

Isn't the appeal of Berger's Second that it sums up the music of the last quarter of the nineteenth century in a work which fuses both the revolutionary innovations of Wagner and Liszt with the more cautious advances of Brahms and his ilk, and it does so in a traditional four movement symphony? Compared with what Mahler was writing at the same time, it can appear quite a conservative piece, but that is to confuse the container for the content.

[Alan Howe]

A good summing-up, Mark. It's an important work.