The following annotations make no pretense to being comprehensive. Rather, we as editors and translators have sought merely to amplify Adorno's often cryptic references with factual information gleaned from the author's other writings on Berg, or from sources relevant to their relationship. Beyond that, we have provided a few references that might not be familiar to English-speaking readers. Specific works are not annotated unless Adorno's reference is unclear or the date of a performance might be of interest; individuals are identified briefly in the index. Published Adorno sources are identified by Roman and Arabic numbers in parentheses, which refer to the relevant volume and page of the edition of Adorno's collected works (Theodor W. Adorno, Gesammelte Schriften, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1970–1986), hereafter “GS”.

Reference is to page numbers in the text.

Preface

p. xvii It is clear from his correspondence with Helene Berg (Berg Fonds, Austrian National Library) that Adorno regarded Hans Ferdinand Redlich's 1957 Berg biography (Alban Berg: Versuch einer Würdigung, Vienna: Universal Edition, 1957) as the principal legitimization for publishing his own Berg book. It was Redlich, according to Adorno, who in the 1930s compromised his political integrity by extolling the virtues of folk music, and Redlich who wrote an essay entitled “Der grosse Einsame,” portraying Schoenberg as a “great isolated figure.”