Alexander Zemlinsky 150th Birthday

[brendangcarroll]

On the occasion of Alexander Zemlinsky's 150th birthday today, his main publisher UNIVERSAL EDITION in Vienna  has created a page that revolves around the life, the work and the composer himself. I hope it will be of interest to many in this forum.


https://www.universaledition.com/150-zemlinsky

[Alan Howe]

Thanks very much, Brendan.

[BerlinExpat]

An appropriate birthday present:

Reported several times in German media although I can't find an indication of the extent of the "fragment".

"Musica non grata" - unwanted music: This is the motto of an international cultural project that will run for four years and last took place in Prague from October 8-10, 2021. The project pays tribute to Prague's rich musical life between the two world wars, which came to a standstill with the Nazi era when many of its key figures - composers, musicians, conductors - were persecuted by the National Socialists. One of them was the composer Alexander Zemlinsky, whose opera fragment "Malva", based on a story by Maxim Gorki, orchestrated and edited by Antony Beaumont, has just been premiered at the Czech State Opera. For Karl-Heinz Steffens, conductor and general music director of the Czech State Opera in Prague, Alexander Zemlinsky is "the interface between romanticism and modernity."

[BerlinExpat]

A bit more info on "Malva":

When Antony Beaumont completed Zemlinsky's unfinished opera "The King of Kandaules" in 1993, he came across many loose sheets in the Zemlinsky archives in Washington. At the request of the Zemlinsky Fund in Vienna, he returned to the Library of Congress in February 2020 to take a closer look at these "unidentified sketches" and was able to assign 39 pages of music to "Malva", 13 of which were partially or completely crossed out. The first 26 pages form the entire first act, from the orchestral introduction to the final trio, with only a few small (musical) gaps that are bridged by two spoken scenes. Since Antony Beaumont is more familiar with Zemlinsky's tonal language than anyone else, he was able to create an orchestral score from this unfinished score. A remarkable achievement!