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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942)

Composer of the Week: Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942): Episode 5: A New Life Cut Short

Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942)

Episode 5

Episode 5: A New Life Cut Short

A New Life Cut Short

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942), A New Life Cut Short

Donald Macleod tells the tragic tale of Zemlinsky's last years spent in exile in America.

Donald Macleod tells the tragic tale of Zemlinsky's last years spent in exile in America. Music includes Jagdstuck, Symphony Songs (excerpts), Psalm 13 and String Quartet No 4.

As the Nazis rise and war looms, Zemlinsky emigrates to the USA - only for his life to be cut cruelly short. Donald Macleod tells the tragic tale of the composer's last years in exile.

Alexander Zemlinsky may have been famously ugly. But his music is amongst the most beautiful, intense and passionate ever written. Pilloried through his life for his gawky, bespectacled appearance and diminutive stature, he lived a life in the shadow of his friend and brother-in-law Arnold Schoenberg, and his one-time lover, the beautiful socialite Alma Mahler. "My time will come after my death", the composer said - and in the last half century audiences have come to love the shimmering details and epic Romantic sweep of his music. Often compared musically to Mahler, Zemlinsky weathered the build-up to two world wars from his beloved home city of Vienna, only to die prematurely in exile in the USA.

As the 1930s drew on and the spectre of Nazism drew across Europe, Zemlinsky's multicultural background put him at risk, despite returning to his home city of Vienna. As war loomed, he followed he brother-in-law Arnold Schoenberg across the Atlantic to the USA - only to be cut down by illness just as he was establishing a new life. Donald Macleod explores his final months in exile.

Jagdstück 
Bernd Künkele, Torsten Schwesig, horns
Jürgen Lamke, piano

Lieder aus Dixieland; Totes braunes Mädel; Übler bursche (Symphonic Songs) 
Willard White (bass-baritone)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Riccardo Chailly, conductor

Psalm 13 
Ernst Senff Chamber Choir
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Riccardo Chailly, conductor

String Quartet No 4 'Suite' (2nd movt. Burleske ) 
Brodsky Quartet

Lyric Symphony (5th movt. Befrei mich von den banden; 6th movt. Vollende denn das letzte Lied; 7th movt. Friede, mein Herz) 
Christine Schäfer, soprano
Matthias Goerne, baritone
Orchestre de Paris
Christophe Eschenbach, conductor.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Alexander Zemlinsky

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Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942)

Episode 5: A New Life Cut Short

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