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'Zemlinsky's life story is that of a man running after luck,
only to discover that luck was running behind him - far behind
him', writes Anthony Beaumont in his definitive biography
of the composer. Zemlinsky's life was infested with complex
personal relationships; but it was haunted by one catastrophic
one, which not only destroyed the composer emotionally, but
set the scene for his social belittling. It might just be,
however, that as this devastating blow destroyed the man,
it made the composer.
In 1901, thirty years after his birth in Vienna, Alexander
von Zemlinsky was enjoying a rapturous affair with Alma Schindler.
But Alma ended it suddenly; rejecting Zemlinsky not for the
sake of their own happiness, nor for a stranger, but to marry
the 'big shot' of Viennese composition, Gustav Mahler. Zemlinsky,
a man prone to outbursts of frustration and concern as to
the possibility of his own social and musical rejection, was
destroyed. Alma's decision to leave him for an ostensibly
more successful and important colleague was almost more than
he could take.
Soon after this, Zemlinsky set about writing one of his finest
works, the tone poem Die Seejungfrau
(based on Hans Christian Andersen's The
Little Mermaid). This work for enormous orchestra is
Zemlinsky at his best, a post-romantic tone poem that creates
what musicologist Mark Morris has referred to as 'kaleidoscopes
of sound…akin to the constant shifting of dreams'. Cradled
within this act of epic orchestral craftsmanship is the symbolism
of the mermaid; her futile dedication to the statue of a young
boy reflecting, for Anthony Beaumont, Zemlinsky's ongoing
and equally hopeless dedication to Alma (indeed, his cherishing
of a framed image of her).
But Zemlinsky's score for Die
Seejungfrau is no self-pitying tirade. It is a work
of possibilities, of light and colour, of triumph, of joy
and of love. For Anthony Beaumont, this was Zemlinsky coming
into his own, maturing, and finding a voice. Alma may have
hurt the composer and rocked his confidence, but after her
rejection his music gains another dimension, becomes lifelike
and worldly. It acquires, in Beaumont's words, 'a new depth
and conviction…the fine gradations of emotional intensity.'
Zemlinsky in 2007/08: dates for
your diary
Wednesday
14 November 2007 Sinfonietta
>
Wednesday 23 January 2008
Die Seejungfrau
(The Mermaid) >
Audio samples of these pieces can be accessed from the performance
calendar pages.
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