BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY NO . 2
Maximilian Franz of the finale , which even comes to a halt and creeps on in considerable mystery before concluding in rambunctious fashion .
Instrumentation Two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , two horns , two trumpets , timpani , and strings .
Alexander ( von ) Zemlinsky
Born October 14 , 1871 in Vienna , Austria Died March 15 , 1942 in Larchmont , New York
Texts : from The Gardener , by Rabindranath Tagore [ 1861-1941 ], in Hans Effenberger ’ s German translations of 1914
LYRIC SYMPHONY , OP . 18 [ 1922 – 23 ]
Among the array of powerful talents populating turn-of-the-century Vienna was Alexander von Zemlinsky . ( He would drop the aristocratic “ von ” after World War I .) He instructed and championed a heady roster of composers whose works would become better remembered than his own . He took the young Arnold Schoenberg under his wing , taught him personally , and employed him as a musical assistant ; they became brothers-in-law when Schoenberg married
Zemlinsky ’ s sister in 1901 . A year earlier , another friend , Gustav Mahler , conducted the premiere of Zemlinsky ’ s opera Es war einmal … ( Once Upon a Time …) in Vienna . Another of his pupils was Alma Schindler , with whom he became romantically involved in 1901 . Their intense , teasing affair lasted about nine months , after which she cast him off to marry Mahler instead . Alban Berg and Anton Webern were among his students in the art of orchestration .
Zemlinsky held a succession of prestigious conducting appointments , including at the Vienna Volksoper ( where he led the Viennese premiere of Strauss ’ Salome ), the Vienna Hofoper ( where he worked alongside Mahler ), and , from 1911-27 , the Neues Deutsches Theater in Prague . He sometimes got swept up in esthetic disagreements and personal rivalries . Partly of Jewish heritage , he inevitably ran afoul of the Nazis , and during the dark years his oeuvre was consigned to the forbidden list of “ degenerate music .” A few months after the Anschluss , Zemlinsky and his wife fled to New York , where he found little success . He was disabled by a stroke in 1939 , and his death three years later went largely unnoticed .
In September 1922 , Zemlinsky advised his publisher : “ This summer I ’ ve written something along the lines of the Lied v . d . Erde . I haven ’ t yet found a title for it . There are seven completely interrelated songs for baritone , soprano , and orchestra , which run without a break .” Its resemblance to Mahler ’ s Das Lied von der Erde cannot be missed . Both are imposing examples of the symphony-as-song-cycle , Mahler ’ s cast in six discrete movements , Zemlinsky ’ s in seven connected ones . Both use a large orchestra with two alternating vocal soloists : contralto ( or baritone ) and tenor for Mahler , soprano and baritone for Zemlinsky . Both employ ( at least ostensibly ) Asian texts of a mystical bent , in German translation : presumed eighth-century Chinese poems for Mahler , poems by the Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore for Zemlinsky . Tagore ( 1861 – 1941 ) became , in 1913 , the first non-European honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature . In 1915 he was awarded a British knighthood , which he renounced four years later to protest British colonial abuses in India . From 1912 – 33 he traveled widely , hailed on five continents as a celebrity . He and Zemlinsky may have met during Tagore ’ s visit to Prague in 1921 , just before the composer embarked on this work . Their paths certainly crossed there in 1926 , when the festivities included Zemlinsky ’ s conducting the last movement of his Lyric Symphony in the poet ’ s presence .
Antony Beaumont insists in his Zemlinsky biography : “… the similarities are skin deep . The form of Mahler ’ s work is linear , Zemlinsky ’ s is circular ; Mahler divides his work into six clearly separated movements , Zemlinsky prefers a through-composed , operatic structure .” Fair enough , and he notes differences of ethos , too , with Mahler bidding a nostalgic adieu to the natural world while Zemlinsky traces a sensual encounter between a man and a woman . Still , most of us are likely to remark on the works ’ similarities rather than their disparities , and we may well agree that Zemlinsky ’ s achievement in this remarkable work is not lessened by its obvious genealogy .
Instrumentation Three flutes , one piccolo , three clarinets , one English horn , three clarinets , one bass clarinet , four horns , three trumpets , three , trombones , one tuba , one timpani , one harp , bass drum , snare drum , triangle , cymbals , xylophone , suspended cymbal , tam-tam , tambourine , harmonium , celesta , and strings .
MAR-APR 2024 / OVERTURE 45