“I just heard your wonderful Sinfonietta: hope this is the beginning of your American success,” wrote Arnold Schönberg to Zemlinsky. But Zemlinsky was already suffering from the effects of a stroke and died alone in New York just a few days later. In his Sinfonietta, Op. 24 (1934) he reused a short theme from the last of his Maeterlinck-Songs, Op. 13 (1913), “Wohin gehst Du?” (Where are you going?), a theme of “self-doubts” and “farewell” from a time when Zemlinsky was beginning to observe growing anti-Jewish sentiments in Vienna. The Maeterlinck-Songs were praised as “the center of his output” by Theodor Adorno, and transport the listener to a mystic world concerned with life, evanescence and death.
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Reviews
“Susanna Mälkki and the excellent ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra deliver an intense, colourful and highly expressive performance of Zemlinsky’s Sinfonietta. The conductor has the Maeterlinck Songs no less well under control. Petra Lang has already successfully recorded the cycle with Vladimir Jurowski and is now considered a specialist in the dark colours of these songs, which are a perfect match for her voice. As far as expressiveness is concerned, she is certainly in the right place … “ ****
Remy Franck – Pizzicato.lu – 25 April 2020
"A superb programme of orchestral and vocal Zemlinsky, often revealing the composer in fraught mood. The playing combines passion with richness." ****
Jeremy Pound - BBC Music magazine (Brief Notes section) - July 2020
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