Alexander Zemlinsky's Die Seejungfrau was designed a fantasy in three movements, but the title also indicates its relationship to Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid . Zemlinsky's program is not detailed, but the work has a narrative structure that makes it feel like program music. To be fair, the structure might have had something to do with the composer's failed relationship with Alma Schindler (later Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel). The work hasn't often been performed, and Zemlinsky inexplicably never published it ...
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Alexander Zemlinsky's Die Seejungfrau was designed a fantasy in three movements, but the title also indicates its relationship to Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid . Zemlinsky's program is not detailed, but the work has a narrative structure that makes it feel like program music. To be fair, the structure might have had something to do with the composer's failed relationship with Alma Schindler (later Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel). The work hasn't often been performed, and Zemlinsky inexplicably never published it. The work's neglect may have something to do with the fact that it was premiered on the same concert bill with Schoenberg's Pelleas und Melisande, but it should be approached on its own terms. Its harmonic world is late Romantic, comparable to Strauss, who was not banished from the modern canon, and it is notable for its sheer density. The score is filled with detailed instructions, faithfully reproduced here by the Netherlands Philharmonic under Marc Albrecht in a live...
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