SCHOENBERG: Kammersymphonie, Op. 9

ZEMLINSKY (arr. Fergus McAlpine): Lyrische Symphonie, Op. 18

 

Katherine Weber: Soprano

Rolfe Dauz: Baritone

Fergus McAlpine: Conductor

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Zemlinsky Chamber Orchestra

 

We invite you to our first ever live concert! The last year has been incredibly tough for musicians and the arts in general, and we’re very excited to be performing for a live audience at last! This performance will also be live-streamed on YouTube, so wherever you are in the world you are welcome to join!

 

Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony is a piece that has very much remained in the shadows. Usually it’s compared to the likes of Mahler’s Das Lied von Der Erde, for its size and modern/romantic musical language. However, the text of the Lyric Symphony is a collection of love poems by Rabindranath Tagore and the message that it conveys is what makes it so unique. Why this is relevant in this day and age: we’ve seen a mass breakdown in societal mental health since the pandemic began. This work represents quite possibly the nicest thing that one person can say to another and through that message, we hope that this piece can at least start to restore faith in our humanity.

 

This version of the Zemlinsky was written to be paired with Schoenberg’s exhilarating and extremely unique first chamber symphony. Schoenberg’s Op. 9 in many ways marks the start of modernism as we know it, where tonality and atonality crash into each other for the first time in music history. A truly epic work of art!

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