NOSPR / Ollu / Saadi / Soloist – virtuoso – hero - NOSPR

Alexander von Zemlinsky never escaped from the shadow of his pupil, brother-in-law and friend  – Arnold Schönberg. His music, however, leaves the listener awestruck with its melodiousness and passion. Zemlinsky had the skill necessary to make use of all the timbres of the late Romantic orchestra. The symphonic fantasy Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid) is an enchantment of Alexander’s passion for Alma Schindler – artists’ muse, who rejected his love, marrying Gustav Mahler.

The piano Pavane for a Dead Princess, composed at the same time, was intended by Maurice Ravel to be an insignificant miniature styled on the old French dance. Its 1910 orchestral arrangement became a symbol of relaxation and calmness. Camille Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3, in turn, is still very much dominated by the 19th century, with its vision of the soloist – a virtuoso and a hero. A vision that never gets old in music!