Zemlinsky: Die Seejungfrau & Schreker: Der Geburtstag der Infantin

[Justin]

Forthcoming from Onyx Classics later this month: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8906921--zemlinsky-die-seejungfrau-schreker-der-geburtstag-der-infantin

[Alan Howe]

Yes, an intriguing coupling.

[TerraEpon]

Never heard of Schreker or that work. I love the Zemlinsky so this might be worth looking into....

[Gareth Vaughan]

Never heard of Schreker?!!! You have treats in store, sir. He wrote some sumptuous late Romantic music.

[Wheesht]

Yesterday Swiss Radio SRF 2 broadcast another episode of its two-hour 'Diskothek im Zwei', this one being dedicated to Zemlinsky's 'Seejungfrau'. The programme format is a discussion of (usually) five recordings of a work by two or so expert guests who listen to extracts from each recording without being told who is playing and then choose a 'winner'. Yesterday's experts were conductors Graziella Contratto and Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer, and they both agreed on this new recording as the best of the five. They also mentioned that Petrenko apparently said women should not conduct as they distract the men playing in the orchestra – they agreed that it was a beautiful conclusion of the broadcast to say that two female conductors had been discussing recordings of The Mermaid, and that this particular conductor, Vasily Petrenko, had been credited with such incredible sensitivity in understanding love entanglements...
The programme can be heard again this Saturday or as a podcast on SRF, but it may not be available outside Switzerland and is in German, of course.