Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942) - March 20 - 24

[jayne lee wilson]

What made it click for me was the Eschenbach recording with Christine Schäfer and Matthias Goerne. If it doesn't do anything for you after that, I don't think it ever would.

There was a surge of interest in the Lyrische Symphonie in the 1990s wasn't there? Chailly/RCO, Sinopoli (DG, with the Vienna Phil/Terfel/Voight) and then the Arte Nova SWR/Gielen which latter came c/w excellent recordings of the Berg Lyric Suite and Op.4 Altenberg Lieder. I can find Sinopoli and Gielen on my shelves but, never tolerating operatic vocals well, don't recall much about them now except that the SWR Arte Nova one had a strikingly leaner, more incisive sound than usual in the work. It seemed a great bargain at the time....(though without texts & translations)...

I think I played the Berg Op.4 rather more than the Zemlinsky. ..Did you hear any of those?

In fact when the Eschenbach arrived in 2006 it was reviewed as another excellent addition to this select group...

[Serial_Apologist]

There was a surge of interest in the Lyrische Symphonie in the 1990s wasn't there? Chailly/RCO, Sinopoli (DG, with the Vienna Phil/Terfel/Voight) and then the Arte Nova SWR/Gielen which latter came c/w excellent recordings of the Berg Lyric Suite and Op.4 Altenberg Lieder. I can find Sinopoli and Gielen on my shelves but, never tolerating operatic vocals well, don't recall much about them now except that the SWR Arte Nova one had a strikingly leaner, more incisive sound than usual in the work. It seemed a great bargain at the time....(though without texts & translations)...

I think I played the Berg Op.4 rather more than the Zemlinsky. ..Did you hear any of those?

In fact when the Eschenbach arrived in 2006 it was reviewed as another excellent addition to this select group...

Would I be right in thinking you're more of a Brucknerian than a Mahlerian, jayne?

[jayne lee wilson]

Would I be right in thinking you're more of a Brucknerian than a Mahlerian, jayne?

Why ever would you think that...?
Once it was both. No longer. But I've just watched Arrival... so maybe my past is my future, my future, my past...

[Richard Barrett]

Did you hear any of those?

I don't remember doing so. My first recording of it was with Dorothy Dorow, Siegmund Nimsgern and the BBCSO conducted by Gabriele Ferro, which came out in the late 1970s. I also used to have a record made a few years later with Varady, Fischer-Dieskau and the BPO conducted by Maazel. Neither of these had the kind of immediate attraction that the Eschenbach did later on. It might be a right-time-in-one's-life thing, although more likely is that the presence of Christine Schäfer is always going to interest me in a recording.

[Barbirollians]

First day out of isolation found Zemlinsky’s B Flat symphony in a charity shop . I know and have always liked the Lyric Symphony recording from Chailly and this is a charming tuneful work. A much underrated composer.

[jayne lee wilson]

First day out of isolation found Zemlinsky’s B Flat symphony in a charity shop . I know and have always liked the Lyric Symphony recording from Chailly and this is a charming tuneful work. A much underrated composer.

Was it this one?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zemlinsky-Symphony-Sinfonietta-Beaumont-2001-10-02/dp/B01KB3BZKE/ref=sr_1_1?crid=602LIILNGOHQ&keywords=zemlinsky+sinfonietta+beaumont&qid=1642213022&s=music&sprefix=zemlinsky+sinfonietta+beaumont%2Cpopular%2C54&sr=1-1

Classic album, with the Sinfonietta, easily his finest orchestral work (along with the Mahler-inspired voices & orchestra Lyric Symphony...)...
A "late masterpiece" if ever there was...
See above, listen to it with the Weill No.2...

I hope you are relishing your freedom!

[Bryn]

Was it this one?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zemlinsky-Symphony-Sinfonietta-Beaumont-2001-10-02/dp/B01KB3BZKE/ref=sr_1_1?crid=602LIILNGOHQ&keywords=zemlinsky+sinfonietta+beaumont&qid=1642213022&s=music&sprefix=zemlinsky+sinfonietta+beaumont%2Cpopular%2C54&sr=1-1

Classic album, with the Sinfonietta, easily his finest orchestral work (along with the Mahler-inspired voices & orchestra Lyric Symphony...)...
A "late masterpiece" if ever there was...
See above, listen to it with the Weill No.2...

I hope you are relishing your freedom!

Now, I think, on Chandos (and QOBUZ):

[RichardB]

Now, I think, on Chandos (and QOBUZ)

There are three CDs of Zemlinsky by these artists on Chandos, the other two focusing on the symphonic poem Die Seejungfrau and the Lyrische Symphonie respectively. (Antony Beaumont also wrote the most extensive book on Zemlinsky's life and music to have yet appeared in English.) All three are very much worth hearing. As is the CD on EMI (now Warner) of his complete songs with orchestra conducted by James Conlon with the Gürzenich-Orchester and various soloists. Of course the La Salle Quartet's recordings of Zemlinsky are a classic, I haven't come across any recordings made since theirs that have the same depth. But Zemlinsky's most important works (at least to him) are his operas, all of which (apart I think from the early Sarema) have been recorded at least once. While his compositional work is still somewhat underrated, at least pretty much all of it is available for listening in a range of performances.

[gurnemanz]

Song update: since my last contribution to this thread I have acquired the attractive disc: Vienna - Fin de Siècle with Barbara Hannigan accompanied by Reinbert De Leeuw on piano. The latter sadly died in 2020. In a recital songs by Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, Frau Mahler, and Wolf, they include seven Zemlinsky settings.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8473852--vienna-fin-de-siecle

[Barbirollians]

Was it this one?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zemlinsky-Symphony-Sinfonietta-Beaumont-2001-10-02/dp/B01KB3BZKE/ref=sr_1_1?crid=602LIILNGOHQ&keywords=zemlinsky+sinfonietta+beaumont&qid=1642213022&s=music&sprefix=zemlinsky+sinfonietta+beaumont%2Cpopular%2C54&sr=1-1

Classic album, with the Sinfonietta, easily his finest orchestral work (along with the Mahler-inspired voices & orchestra Lyric Symphony...)...
A "late masterpiece" if ever there was...
See above, listen to it with the Weill No.2...

I hope you are relishing your freedom!

Well yes thanks but Omicron may be milder but has left me feeling very weary yet insomniacal . Hopefully, it will lift shortly.

No it was the Chailly recording.

[jayne lee wilson]

There are three CDs of Zemlinsky by these artists on Chandos, the other two focusing on the symphonic poem Die Seejungfrau and the Lyrische Symphonie respectively. (Antony Beaumont also wrote the most extensive book on Zemlinsky's life and music to have yet appeared in English.) All three are very much worth hearing. As is the CD on EMI (now Warner) of his complete songs with orchestra conducted by James Conlon with the Gürzenich-Orchester and various soloists. Of course the La Salle Quartet's recordings of Zemlinsky are a classic, I haven't come across any recordings made since theirs that have the same depth. But Zemlinsky's most important works (at least to him) are his operas, all of which (apart I think from the early Sarema) have been recorded at least once. While his compositional work is still somewhat underrated, at least pretty much all of it is available for listening in a range of performances.

Do you not know the Artis Quartet's Zemlinsky intégrale on Nimbus? Specialists in such rep e.g. Schulhoff, Muller-Hermann etc., they studied with the LaSalle and then made the music their own (in warmer more generous sound than the LaSalles...).... seek them out on Qobuz....

[RichardB]

Do you not know the Artis Quartet's Zemlinsky intégrale on Nimbus?

Yes I do.