David Harbin enquires about recordings of the Lyric Symphony.

I own the Sinopoli on DG and have not heard recordings by Flor/ NDR SO,
Jordan, Chailly ACO, Gielen/ BBC SO, Valek/ Prague Radio-Symph, or
Zagrosek/ Austrian RSO.  Prompted by David's post I have just gone back
to have another listen to my recording by Sinopoli and I was struck as
never before at just how absolutely gorgeous this music is.  This is music
which cries out to be far better known.  Zemlinsky died in America in near
total obscurity and poverty, a forgotten voice carrying on a strongly
post-Mahlerian Viennese musical heritage in an age which wanted nothing to
do with Mahler.  He deserved a lot better than that.  Other obvious musical
inheritances include strongly post-Wagnerian elements and in general the
musical language comes remarkably close to that of early Schoenberg such
as Gurrelieder, Pelleas und Melisande, Verklaerte Nacht.  His style of
orchestration combines the reserved clarity of Mahler while making only
reluctant concessions to Straussian lushness.

Alexander Zemlinsky composed his Lyrische Symphonie in 1922, which seems
to be regarded by some as his finest work.  It is no secret that it is
modeled after Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde in being a work of Orchestral
Lieder written for two soloists with texts taken, not from Chinese poetry,
but from the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore.  Tagore had come to
international attention in 1913 by becoming the first non-European writer
to receive the Nobel Prize in literature.  As in the Mahler there is much
refined orientalist tone painting with subtly restrained use pentatonic
'coloring' to add an exotic feel of the music at certain points, while
avoiding the excess of the Mikado/ Turandot type of bizarre distorted
'oriental' caricature.  The sensuality, hushed inwardness, intensity, and
deep metaphysical yearnings of the text are, as in Mahler, fully respected
and given their fullest, richest possible expression.  This is just
beautiful music pure and simple.

As for Sinopoli's recording even without having heard other performances
of the work Bryn Terfel's singing really did leave a powerful impression.
In fact he just about steals the show even if Sinopoli's contribution helps
greatly.  I like his highly idiomatic declamation of the German text which
I could easily follow without reading the booklet.  His style reminded me
a lot of Fischer-Dieskau who might be the ideal singer for the baritone
part (there is in fact a live Salzburg Festival recording with him on Orfeo
D'Or with Zagrosek conducting and Varady taking the soprano role).  Terfel
really makes the text comes to life.  Voigt's German unfortunately is
rather hard to understand and I wonder if she understands what she is
singing.  However she mouths the words prettily enough to provide a good
foil to Terfel.  Austro-German music, especially of this era, tended to
follow the Wagnerian trend of being highly declamatory, in stark contrast
to the more lyrical bel canto Italian tradition.

As for the Musikvereinsaal live recording the sound staging isn't nearly
as wide as what the Teldec engineers achieved there in their live Second
Viennese recordings with Sinopoli.  The DG recording is however richer
('warmer') in terms of how tone colour / timbre has been captured compared
to the Teldec recordings in the same hall.  The dynamic range is a little
more constricted.  Tympani lack some focus.  The violins in their upper
register sound uncommonly sweet and the richness of the Vienna string sound
has been captured exceptionally well.  Balances are also excellent,
especially between that of voice and orchestra, which are close to ideal.

So maybe someone out there will take some sort of notice to discover one
of the 20th centuries best kept secrets.  "My time will come" said Mahler -
and it has.  I hope Zemlinsky's time too will come...

Satoshi Akima
Sydney, Australia
[log in to unmask]