Hardly more than a year before the first performance of the "Lyric Suite" on 8 January 1927, Alban Berg had suddenly emerged from almost total obscurity to world-wide fame with the premiere of "Wozzeck". A composition for string quartet is hardly likely to excite comparable attention, but it, too, quickly achieved an extraordinary success, and to this day remains, for all its subjective and tragic character, the most brilliant and effective virtuoso display piece in its genre. The special and un...