Alexander von Zemlinsky

It was Zemlinsky’s fate to be sidelined for most of his life. Born in Vienna in 1871 into a prosperous Austrian-Jewish family, he was encouraged by Brahms and revered as an influence and mentor by the arch-modernist Schoenberg and his followers, but after some initial success, lasting triumph seemed to elude him. His operatic masterpieces Der Zwerg (The Dwarf, 1921) and A Florentine Tragedy (1916), and the exquisite vocal-orchestral Lyric Symphony (1923), failed to establish a place in the repertoire. His rejection by Alma Schindler, who left him for the far more charismatic Mahler, left lasting emotional scars, reflected poignantly in many of his finest works. In the 1930s the Nazis’ anti-Semitic policies silenced his music and forced Zemlinsky to flee, first back to Vienna, and then in 1938 to the USA. He died in New York in 1942, his music almost forgotten. Towards the end of the 20th Century, however, interest in him began to revive, and it was recognised that his music, though far less extrovert than that of Mahler or Schoenberg, could rival them in delicate poetry and inner intensity. His status as one of the Viennese masters is now established beyond question.