Wed 26th Sep 19:30 - R Strauss & Zemlinsky - LPO/Jurowski

[Simon B]

In amongst the welter of "safe" standard rep that's dominated the evening concerts since the Proms, something more interesting (well, to me, anyway!) live from the RFH tonight. Less unusual, given this, is that the concert will be given by the LPO cond. Jurowski - consistently the most daring of the London "big 3".

The (bleeding chunks from) Strauss' Frau Ohne Schatten (a slightly prolix confection IMO but liberally scattered with Straussian purple passages) is a comparative rarity, but the Zemlinsky Florentine Tragedy is the real gem.

Apart from a few usual suspects, one-act operas seem particularly prone to slide into obscurity, perhaps due to the cost and difficulty of staging them as part of a longer evening. In any case, Zemlinsky is (IMO naturally) firmly in the "somewhat unjustly neglected" category. The music is rich and darkly sumptuous somewhere in the area of R Strauss, Korngold, Franz Schreker etc. For those with some familiarity with the few Zemlinsky works that occupy a corner of the regular rep, I'd place the soundworld somewhere between the more straightforward romanticism of The Mermaid and the more abrasive, colder Lyric Symphony.

Not to be missed - well, for appreciators of these kind of fin de siecle works heavy with redolence of a world (and tonality) about to collapse.

[Serial_Apologist]

The music is rich and darkly sumptuous somewhere in the area of R Strauss, Korngold, Franz Schreker etc. For those with some familiarity with the few Zemlinsky works that occupy a corner of the regular rep, I'd place the soundworld somewhere between the more straightforward romanticism of The Mermaid and the more abrasive, colder Lyric Symphony.

Not to be missed - well, for appreciators of these kind of fin de siecle works heavy with redolence of a world (and tonality) about to collapse.

Yes and John Adams's (and other's) quest to bring it back seem somehow so puny in comparison!

Radio 3 broadcasted Zemlinsky's "Der Zwerg" ("The Dwarf") a few years ago as part of an evening of one-act operas. If anybody remembers that, iirc it was composed roughly around the same time, so expect the same kind of all-encompassing musical expressive vision this great and really only fairly recently recognised composer-friend and teacher of Schoenberg was capable of delivering.

Somebody wrote quite recently on one of these threads that Mahler had no true successors as composer; I've always felt Zemlinsky to have been one.

[Petrushka]

Somebody wrote quite recently on one of these threads that Mahler had no true successors as composer;

Who on earth wrote that? Shostakovich surely is the real successor to Mahler!

[euthynicus]

Who on earth wrote that? Shostakovich surely is the real successor to Mahler!

Certainly more so than Zemlinsky. Anyway, I left the concert after the first half, infuriated. I hope I appreciate a little of how self-indulgent that will sound to those who live outside a cultural centre, and for those whom, not through choice, each concert attended is a labour and a treat, but: I was promised excerpts from Frau ohne Schatten, in my estimation Strauss's greatest opera. What I got was a misegenated hotch--potch of interludes and music minus one, or four, or a whole chorus. No, this was a grotesque way to treat a great score. Even while what was left was conducted and played with great style. You can't do this piece without voices. And why would you when there are a bunch of decent singers waiting to come on for the second half? And when the composer himself has left a decent enough pot-pourri of the great tunes for orchestra?

[Serial_Apologist]

Who on earth wrote that? Shostakovich surely is the real successor to Mahler!

Have you heard Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony in Seven Songs, Petrushka?

[Roehre]

.... the Zemlinsky Florentine Tragedy is the real gem.

Apart from a few usual suspects, one-act operas seem particularly prone to slide into obscurity, perhaps due to the cost and difficulty of staging them as part of a longer evening. In any case, Zemlinsky is (IMO naturally) firmly in the "somewhat unjustly neglected" category. The music is rich and darkly sumptuous somewhere in the area of R Strauss, Korngold, Franz Schreker etc. For those with some familiarity with the few Zemlinsky works that occupy a corner of the regular rep, I'd place the soundworld somewhere between the more straightforward romanticism of The Mermaid and the more abrasive, colder Lyric Symphony..

I was lucky enough to be able to attend the first post-war performance of Die florentinische Tragödie (in concert, not as opera): Reinbert de Leeuw did conduct the work from a photocopy of the composer's score (a big bunch of paper, btw) at that one - as an orchestral score at that time (1986 iirc) seemed not to have been available.
for his recording of the work Chailly used the same score to compare it with the (in the mean time) printed score - as he always seems to do when the composer's score are available, or printed scores used by the composers or by conductors who worked with them (all Mengelberg scores for his Amsterdam Mahler cycle e.g., or the original Leipzig scores by Mendelssohn).

[mercia]

I assume [not having heard it] that Strauss's own Symphonic Fantasy on DFoS is a completely different beast to Mr Jurowski's selections (?).

I would have liked more explanation beforehand [unless I missed it] of what parts of the Strauss I would be hearing [i.e. what would be happening dramatically]

[NickWraight]

Last night's LPO concert was beautifully played and hugely worth attending but the 'Frosch' compilation was slightly bizarre. The lack of vocal lines, not even orchestrated, gave the "bleeding chunks" a vacant quality. A number of the more purple interludes were also absent but Jurowski's interpretation bodes well for his Met production this season. Even so, Strauss's orchestral mastery was strongly in evidence and rather showed up Zemlinsky's Wildean fantasy as lacking psychological depth which the story rather cries out for. Given the lack of drama in the story, a kind of "Il Tabarro" without the minor characters, the orchestra needs more detail which was vividly present in the Strauss. The ROH's double bill of 'A Florentine Tragedy' with 'The Dwarf' in the 80s sticks in the memory especially the latter with the wonderful Kenneth Riegel on his knees for the entire 90 mins.

[BBMmk2]

I heard from a couple of LPO players yesdterday, who I was working with, about this concert, and thery said that it went rather well!!

[amateur51]

The ROH's double bill of 'A Florentine Tragedy' with 'The Dwarf' in the 80s sticks in the memory especially the latter with the wonderful Kenneth Riegel on his knees for the entire 90 mins.

An extraordinary evening I agree, NickWraight

[Roehre]

Last night's LPO concert was beautifully played and hugely worth attending but the 'Frosch' compilation was slightly bizarre. The lack of vocal lines, not even orchestrated, gave the "bleeding chunks" a vacant quality. A number of the more purple interludes were also absent but Jurowski's interpretation bodes well for his Met production this season. Even so, Strauss's orchestral mastery was strongly in evidence...

Listened to it on iPlayer. A bizarre, IMO too long, but nevertheless enjoyable Strauss

[BBMmk2]

I am looking forward to hearing this on iplayer, as ido rather like R Strauss's opera. The LPO does seem to be the more daring of orchestras i n their usage of their season.

The LPO players with whom I was working with, thjis week(as part of the educatioon programme), were certainly enthusing about their maestro!

[Simon B]

It's reassuring to see the usual level of consensus among various published crits of this concert:

"Jurowski's performance confirmed his status as a major Zemlinsky interpreter," "The orchestral playing was faultless, the singing superb" http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012...urowski-review

"Jurowski proceeded too audibly bar-by-bar", "The real problem here lay with the singers." http://boulezian.blogspot.co.uk/2012...linsky-26.html



The theory I've developed over time is that to a significant degree, particularly in concerts with vocal soloists, critics are reviewing their seats in the RFH as much as the performance itself. I'm not saying that's the case here, but I'm convinced it's a factor in general. The new RFH acoustic (much improved over the old one, though that's not saying a lot) is highly prone to making soloists disappear behind the orchestra. Even John Tomlinson had his work cut out making an impact as Bluebeard a year or so back, which says it all to me. "Move three seats to the left and get a completely different result" is the general rule...

Since there were a fair few empty seats (unfortunately inevitable even in London with a slightly obscure programme like this) I was able to pick a known-good one, from where I thought this concert was a terrific demonstration of orchestral prowess from an on-form LPO (plus David Pyatt moonlighting from the LSO on first horn in the Strauss). It was unfortunate that the first half wasn't advertised as "orchestral excerpts" from FrOSch, which whilst it didn't bother me (having come mostly for the Zemlinsky) I can appreciate was at least disappointing to those such as the poster above hoping for excerpts complete with the vocal lines.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Two more for you:

http://www.opera-britannia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=780:eine-florentinische-tragoedie-26th-september-2012&catid=8:opera-reviews&Itemid=16

http://www.bachtrack.com/review-rfh-lpo-jurowski-strauss-zemlinsky-florentine

I'm sorry to have missed this one, although did catch it on Radio 3.