Alexander Zemlinsky - Lyric Symphony; Cymbeline (Antony Beaumont)

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Composer: Alexander Zemlinsky

1. Lyric Symphony, Op. 18: I. Ich bin friedlos. Langsam mit ernst-leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck -
2. Lyric Symphony, Op. 18: II. Mutter, der junge Prinz. Lebhaft -
3. Lyric Symphony, Op. 18: III. Du bist die Abendwolke. Adagio -
4. Lyric Symphony, Op. 18: IV. Sprich zu mir, Geliebter. Langsam -
5. Lyric Symphony, Op. 18: V. Befrei' mich von den Branden. Feurig und kraftvoll -
6. Lyric Symphony, Op. 18: VI. Vollende denn das letzte Lied. Sehr mäßige Viertel -
7. Lyric Symphony, Op. 18: VII. Friede, mein Herz. Molto adagio
8. Incidental music to Shakespeare's "Cymbeline": Prelude. Kraftvoll und mäßig bewegt
9. Incidental music to Shakespeare's "Cymbeline": Imogen and Pisanio (Introduction to Act I, Scene 3). Sehr langsam -
10. Incidental music to Shakespeare's "Cymbeline": Tempo (Sehr langsam) [also closing music for Act I, Scene 3]
11. Incidental music to Shakespeare's "Cymbeline": Song (Act II, Scene 3): 'Horch, horch! Die Lerche'. Leicht bewegt und zart
12. Incidental music to Shakespeare's "Cymbeline": Opening of Act III. Mäßig bewegt
13. Incidental music to Shakespeare's "Cymbeline": Introduction to Act IV. Mäßig, nicht schleppend
14. Incidental music to Shakespeare's "Cymbeline": Solemn music (Act IV, Scene 2). Mäßig, nicht schleppend
15. Incidental music to Shakespeare's "Cymbeline": Song (Act IV, Scene 2): 'Scheust nicht mehr der Sonne Glühn'. Langsam gehend
16. Incidental music to Shakespeare's "Cymbeline": Closing music for Act IV [Langsam gehend]
17. Incidental music to Shakespeare's "Cymbeline": Introduction to Act V. Energisch bewegt
18. Incidental music to Shakespeare's "Cymbeline": Melodrama (Act V, Scene 4): 'Nicht länger kühle, Donnergott'. Mäßige Viertel

Turid Karlsen, soprano (1-7)
Franz Grundheber, baritone (1-7)
Jaroslav Březina, tenor (8-18)
Members of Bremen Shakespeare Company (8-18)
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Antony Beaumont, conductor
Date: 2003
Label: Chandos
https://www.chandos.net/details06.asp?CNumber=CHAN%2010069

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Review

PERFORMANCE: **** / SOUND: ****

Alexander Zemlinsky admitted that Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde was the model for his Lyric Symphony, composed in 1921. It shares an oriental poetic basis – here verses from Rabindranath Tagore’s The Gardener – and a sequential form of songs divided between two singers. But where Mahler explores the end of life, Zemlinsky’s symphony explores the end of love, charting a romance so intoxicating that it forces its protagonists apart. With Chailly’s version long unavailable, the benchmark is Sinopoli’s opulently recorded DG account with Deborah Voigt and Bryn Terfel and, though it has its strengths, this new Chandos recording doesn’t quite topple either. One main point of interest is Antony Beaumont’s use of his new edition of the score, though the variants are chiefly in the minutiae. The Norwegian soprano Turid Karlsen is particularly beguiling – most definitely matching Zemlinsky’s ideal of a ‘jugendlich-dramatisch’ vocal character. German baritone Franz Grundheber is less satisfactory: although he has made many distinguished opera recordings in the past, here his voice has developed a slight wobble and, though his communication of the words is exemplary, his tone isn’t as rich as Terfel’s. Zemlinsky’s full-on, late-Romantic sound-world comes up especially well in the Czech Philharmonic’s playing, warmly recorded in the Prague Rudolfinum. There’s no denying Beaumont’s unique authority in this music – the emotional shape from hope to love to loss is as moving as it has ever been. The fascinating coupling is the first recording for a set of incidental music Zemlinsky composed in 1913-15 for a typically over-the-top Shakespeare production by Max Reinhardt – though the outbreak of war and the British setting of Cymbeline meant it never saw the light of day in the theatre. A troupe of actors from Bremen sensitively intone some of the Bard’s words in German, and there’s a touching contribution from tenor Jaroslav Bšezina.

-- Matthew Rye, BBC Music Magazine

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/May03/Zemlinsky_Beaumont.htm
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/apr/25/classicalmusicandopera.artsfeatures1
http://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-9372

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Alexander Zemlinsky (October 14, 1871, Vienna – March 15, 1942, Larchmont, New York) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and teacher. Zemlinsky's best-known work is the Lyric Symphony, which Zemlinsky compared in a letter to his publisher to Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. As a conductor, Zemlinsky was admired by, among others, Kurt Weill and Stravinsky. As a teacher, his pupils included Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Hans Krása and Karl Weigl.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_von_Zemlinsky

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Antony Beaumont (born 1949 in London) is an English and German musicologist, writer, conductor and violinist. As a conductor, he has specialized in German music from the first half of the 20th century, including works by Zemlinsky, Weill, and Gurlitt. As a musicologist, he has published books on Busoni, Zemlinsky, and Mahler.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Beaumont
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/antony-beaumont-mn0001929856

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