An unlikely coupling of one-act operas by Zemlinsky and Puccini bears fruit in a staging that reveals their thematic parallels while leaving their obvious differences on show.
Zemlinsky's dark story of infidelity and murder, from Oscar Wilde's unfinished play, poses a significant musical challenge for both audience and director.
The first edition of the New Life Festival, dedicated to Jewish musicians who fled from or suffered under the National Socialist regime during the Second World War, uncovered some hidden gems.
The Bruckner Orchester Linz’s Chicago appearance was centered on American music with music director Dennis Russell Davies and vocalist Angélique Kidjo, rounded off by a Zemlinsky song cycle based on African-American poetry.
The fugue made an interesting subject for the Brodsky Quartet’s concert at St Georges. The programme delved into the fugue’s cross over between eras, from Baroque, all the way to early expressionism.
This was one of those concert programmes that you will only find at the Proms – a richly varied group of works by Bayan Northcott, Mozart and Zemlinsky.
Jurowski is a wonderful conductor to watch. He carves shapes through his bearing and gesture cleanly, and his indications are crisp and defined - yet he retains poetic fluidity through his hands at all times.
Much like Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, Zemlinsky’s string quartets signifies the death of the Romantic world while laying the groundwork for the 20th century, but in contrast to Mahler’s cry of distress, Zemlinsky indulged in the new and eagerly descended into the future.
BBC National Orchestra of Wales's afternoon concert series brings unusual works to light, but the small auditorium can make some of the heavier late-romantic orchestration overwhelming – to the point of being overpowering.
Billed as “Midori performs Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto”, this Orchestre symphonique de Montréal concert conducted by James Colon was notable for a blazing performance of Zemlinsky's symphonic poem Die Seejungfrau.
The Auckland Philharmonia and conductor Jun Märkl presented “Last Songs”, a programme of late works by Schubert, Richard Strauss and Zemlinsky. We opened with Zemlinsky’s Sinfonietta, a work much admired by Schoenberg and Berg. There is a spiky quality to the music that is reminiscent of Hindemith and Stravinsky, though notably less acerbic than either.
Strauss’ Die Frau Ohne Schatten is perhaps his most problematic opera, in that it contains all that is best and worst in him, to the most maddening degrees.
Carl Nielsen had an exceptional understanding of the nuances of woodwind instruments, and when playing the parts he wrote for flautists, the affection is almost palpable. Towards the end of his composing career, he thought of different orchestral instruments as having distinct personalities, and composed their interactions accordingly.
The pairing of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (“The Child and the Spells”) with Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg (“The Dwarf”) is an interesting juxtaposition.
A ring of invisibility found in a giant fish. A voyeuristic king. A fisherman’s burning house and unfaithful wife. Alexander Zemlinsky’s Der König Kandaules is an exceptionally strange opera. Based on André Gide’s 1899 play of the same title, it is a heady mix of sex, violence, and remarkably beautiful music.
Edo de Waart, Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, chose for his contribution to the 2011 Arts Festival works by two Germanic composers spanning the late Romantic and early modern periods who were almost exact contemporaries. Richard Strauss coincidentally was born seven years before and died seven years after Alexander von Zemlinsky.
Leticia Moreno deleita, con un manejo extraordinario de su instrumento, al interpretar con pasión a Szymanowski, en un programa que incluye obras de Mahler y de Zemlinsky.
La noche trasfigurada copó la velada gracias a una sección de cuerdas que logró efectuar una interpretación memorable de esta obra maestra, no sin el mérito también del director James Conlon, que ofreció una versión pausada y cuidadosa con la arquitectura armónica de la composición. Al otro lado de la balanza, la Sinfonía lírica de Alexander Zemlinsky, un compositor cuyo nombre aparece habitualmente ensombrecido por el genio de Schönberg.
Die Grazer Oper wagt sich mit Werken von Alexander Zemlinsky und Luigi Dallapiccola auf selten gespieltes Terrain, hinterlässt aber einige szenische Fragezeichen.
« More corn than gold », ironisait Irving Kolodin, à propos du compositeur viennois alors très en vue à Hollywood, mais tenu pour moins sérieux par la Neue Musik. La postérité n’aura donné que partiellement tort à ce critique à la dent dure, en n’exhumant que rarement l’œuvre de Korngold après la seconde guerre mondiale.
La soprano Sabine Devieilhe, accompagnée par Anne Le Bozec au piano, nous offre une parenthèse enchantée dans la musique française et autrichienne, à cheval sur les 19ème et 20ème siècles.
