BaL 23.04.22 - Zemlinsky: Lyric Symphony

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30 am
Building a Library
Erik Levy compares recordings of Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony and picks a favourite.

Composer, prominent conductor and influential composition teacher, Zemlinsky was at the centre of turn of the century Viennese musical life. Among his distinguished pupils were Arnold Schoenberg (who also happened to be his brother-in-law), Berg, Webern and Korngold. He also taught and was romantically involved with Alma Schindler until she decided to marry a certain Gustav Mahler. And it’s Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde which provided the model for Zemlinsky’s best-known work, his 1923 Lyric Symphony. Mahler had chosen Chinese poetry for his song-symphony and Zemlinsky, too, looked East, setting poems by the then fashionable 1913 Nobel Prize-winning Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore. The seven texts, an exploration of love, are sung alternately by baritone and soprano, accompanied in lush late-Romantic style by a large orchestra.

Available versions:-


Turid Karlsen, Franz Grundheber, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Anthony Beaumont *

Elizabeth Byrne, John Hancock, American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein *

Alessandra Marc, Håkan Hagegård, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly

Bo Skovhus, Soile Isokoski, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, James Conlon *

Christine Schafer, Matthais Goerne, Orchestra de Paris, Christoph Eschenbach

Siegmund Nimsgern, Dorothy Dorow, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Gabriele Ferro *

Karan Armstrong, Roland Hermann, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Michael Gielen

Viatka Orsanic, James Johnson, SWF Symphony Orchestra, Michael Gielen *

Roman Trekel, Twyla Robinson, Houston Symphony, Hans Graf

Hillevi Martinpelto, Thomas Hampson, New York Philharmonic, Neeme Järvi *

Edith Wiens, Andreas Schmidt, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Armin Jordan *

Johanna Winkel, Michael Nagy, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Liebreich

Julia Varady, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Berliner Philharmoniker, Lorin Maazel

Deborah Voigt, Bryn Terfel, Wiener Philharmoniker, Giuseppe Sinopoli

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Julia Varady, Radio Symphonieorchester Wien, Lothar Zagrosek


(* = download only)

[RichardB]

Now this is interesting. I haven't heard all the listed recordings, maybe about half of them, and Eschenbach would be a clear choice for me. Although I don't know either of the Gielens or Sinopoli.

[Petrushka]

I have the Eschenbach recording which I bought when it came out. However, I couldn't really summon up much enthusiasm for the piece and it's had just the one hearing. Perhaps it's time for another go?

[RichardB]

I have the Eschenbach recording which I bought when it came out. However, I couldn't really summon up much enthusiasm for the piece and it's had just the one hearing. Perhaps it's time for another go?

Your mileage may vary, of course, but I've had a soft spot for this piece since I first heard it (the Ferro recording on LP in the 1980s, which I think may have been the work's first recording, at least I don't know of an earlier one). I can imagine why the baritone's refrain "du bist mein Eigen, mein Eigen" got under Alban Berg's skin to the point of his quoting it in his Lyric Suite, it had a similar effect on me too, and Zemlinsky's orchestration throughout is beautiful, complex and sometimes quite startling, like the pianissimo glissandi on two trombones just before the end, diverging from Ab/Bb to D/F# as they descend, so that the final D major (actually D6) slides into place in a unique and unforgettable way.

[Pulcinella]

I have the Chailly version as part of a Double Decca Zemlinsky compilation.

Sadly, no lyrics in the liner notes, but I found them here:

https://www.lieder.net/lieder/assemble_texts.html?SongCycleId=225

[Barbirollians]

I have the Chailly version as part of a Double Decca Zemlinsky compilation.

Sadly, no lyrics in the liner notes, but I found them here:

https://www.lieder.net/lieder/assemb...ongCycleId=225

I bought the Chailly when it first came out and have never felt the need to acquire another version.

[BBMmk2]

Ah, I have Chailly. Fabulous!

[RichardB]

I bought the Chailly when it first came out and have never felt the need to acquire another version.

I think that might just be because you haven't heard Christine Schäfer in the soprano part - Alessandra Marc in Chailly's recording simply doesn't compare in terms of subtlety, precision and beauty of sound, although of course it's a matter of taste to a great extent.

[gurnemanz]

When a few years ago I got Zemlinsky songs on an excellent Briliant Classics 2CD DG reissue - still around for a snip second-hand - I realised I should also get to know the Lyric Symphony and cast around for a version to acquire. It seemed that Eschenbach on Capriccio was the one to have. I haven't done a comparison but have had no regrets. A marvellous recording and rewarding experience, including two favourite Lied singers, Matthias Goerne and Christine Schäfer, in top form.

[Darloboy]

After what seems like a long run of old warhorses, BaL finally gets round to covering a work it's never done before - albeit one of the few works by Zemlinsky of which I already possess a recording (by Eschenbach). Interesting that no composer whose name begins with 'Z' had ever featured in BaL before this series, but this series has included two - maybe the producers started going through an old copy of the Penguin Guide in reverse order? In which case I look forward to programmes on Ysaÿe and Yost next year.

Incidentally, the BBC appears to have spelt Erik Levi's name incorrectly.

[gurnemanz]

After what seems like a long run of old warhorses, BaL finally gets round to covering a work it's never done before - albeit one of the few works by Zemlinsky of which I already possess a recording (by Eschenbach). Interesting that no composer whose name begins with 'Z' has ever featured in BaL before, but this series has included two - maybe the producers started going through an old copy of the Penguin Guide in reverse order? In which case I look forward to programmes on Ysaÿe and Yost next year.

Incidentally, the BBC appears to have spelt Erik Levi's name incorrectly.

We had Zelenka not long ago.

[CallMePaul]

In September 2020, Gramophone considered this work in its The Gramophone Collection article. Richard Whitehouse, the reviewer, chose Conlon as his first choice, with Chailly, Liebreich and Beaumont also recommended. I note that, according to the list in Post 1, Botstein and Beaumont have become download only, whereas the Eschenbach, listed by Whitehouse as download only, appears still to be available in hard copy CD.

I have the Eschenbach and have always enjoyed it, and I agree with previous posts about the quality of the singers (two of my favourite currently active Lieder singers, along with Florian Boesch whom I would like to hear in this work). Whitehouse claims that this is "the slowest version at 51 minutes" without quoting any other timings. This is a marvellous work which deserves to be programmed in concert more often. How about it BBC, perhaps with the BBC Phil and John Storgards, with Boesch and a soprano of comparable stature as soloists? I am sure I would not be the only taker!

[Serial_Apologist]

We had Zelenka not long ago.

I'm pretty sure there was one on Zimmerman, too.

[Serial_Apologist]

Your mileage may vary, of course, but I've had a soft spot for this piece since I first heard it (the Ferro recording on LP in the 1980s, which I think may have been the work's first recording, at least I don't know of an earlier one). I can imagine why the baritone's refrain "du bist mein Eigen, mein Eigen" got under Alban Berg's skin to the point of his quoting it in his Lyric Suite, it had a similar effect on me too, and Zemlinsky's orchestration throughout is beautiful, complex and sometimes quite startling, like the pianissimo glissandi on two trombones just before the end, diverging from Ab/Bb to D/F# as they descend, so that the final D major (actually D6) slides into place in a unique and unforgettable way.

I just wish I could find out which recording was used to illustrate passages from the work in the excellent interval talk on the work, "Zemlinsky and Modernism" given by Paul Banks for its performance by David Wilson-Johnson, Anne Evans and the BBC Phil under Bernard Klee on July 28 1988, because I taped it without including mention of the different recording used for the talk. The Klee performance was fine - better imv than the recording I have, the Fischer-Diskau one - Varady is totally unsuited to the female role - but whichever recording was used, the talk includes that final stretch from the last big climax, and manages to bring out the perfect fourth chord embedded in the melting harmonic progression from emotional peak to eventual ambivalence-tinged resolution. That fourths chord is somehow inaudible in other recordings of that magical passage, and yet its audibility here in the midst of its visionary orchestration makes for one of the most astonishing passages in any music I know.

[RichardB]

the recording I have, the Fischer-Diskau one - Varady is totally unsuited to the female role

This is the thing - the two vocalists have to be well matched, since (unlike in Das Lied von der Erde) they're the protagonists of a single narrative, and while DFD is as good as anyone could be, Schäfer and Goerne together are something else.