Zemlinsky

Rating:
Summary: His time has come...
Review: Zemlinsky was a great composer. I don't mean that he was "interesting", or that he was a "worthwhile" second rate talent. No. I prefer his music to Mahler's and feel that he was an equal to Strauss. But he had many strikes against him, being a short, ugly, rather uncharismatic Jew. He didn't blabber alot about his theories of music, or politics, or anything else. He didn't pander to public taste. But his music has a surging, overwhelming emotional power. Listening to his music, one can hear the love that he lavished on every measure, and his artistic integrity is everywhere in evidence.

The author, Antony Beaumont, has devoted a lot of his energy to Zemlinsky, having finished the orchestration of his final opera "Der Konig Kandaules", as well as several other unfinished works. In this book, he chronicles Zemlinsky's life, from his Sephardic roots, through his education, early successes, his romance with Alma Schindler (later wife of Mahler and others), his relationships with various colleagues, and friends such as Brahms, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Korngold, etc. It also tells of his struggles, disappointments, his efforts to prove that he was "Aryan" to avoid Nazi censure, and his eventual flight to America, where he ran out of money and died, a broken and largely forgotten man. How far his reputation has come since then!

Beaumont also spends a considerable amout of time on muscial analysis of Zemlinsky's works, but it isn't dry and academic. It's fascinating to learn how he worked musical symbols, codes, and names into his works--some originating in the Kabbalah (a form of Jewish mysticism). The book is also lavishly documented, with a complete list of Zemlinsky's works, with composition dates, publication dates, and the location of the manuscripts. It also has a synopsis of each of his operas.

There was only one thing that rankled me a little--that Beaumont takes several shots at Zemlinsky's famous student, Korngold. Some of his comments arise from truths--Korngold's music doesn't plumb the depths of human agony the way Zemlinsky's does, but then, no two composers have exactly the same strengths. And Korngold's music has qualities that Zemlinsky's lacks. For a biographer of Zemlinsky to say, in regards to Korngold's "Die Tote Stadt", that "...as with 'Violanta', the public saw through the glitter, and the work soon vanished from the repertoire" is a cheap shot--if the public is to be the measure of an opera's worth, then why did Zemlinsky's operas vanish? They're both working their way back into the repertoire, and Korngold is probably in the lead. But though I love Korngold, I agree that Zemlinsky was the deeper artist.

Anyone who loves Zemlinsky's music will have their appreciation deepened by reading this book, and the reader unfamiliar with his music will seek it out. His time has indeed come.

Rating:
Summary: His time has come...
Review: Zemlinsky was a great composer. I don't mean that he was "interesting", or that he was a "worthwhile" second rate talent. No. I prefer his music to Mahler's and feel that he was an equal to Strauss. But he had many strikes against him, being a short, ugly, rather uncharismatic Jew. He didn't blabber alot about his theories of music, or politics, or anything else. He didn't pander to public taste. But his music has a surging, overwhelming emotional power. Listening to his music, one can hear the love that he lavished on every measure, and his artistic integrity is everywhere in evidence.

The author, Antony Beaumont, has devoted a lot of his energy to Zemlinsky, having finished the orchestration of his final opera "Der Konig Kandaules", as well as several other unfinished works. In this book, he chronicles Zemlinsky's life, from his Sephardic roots, through his education, early successes, his romance with Alma Schindler (later wife of Mahler and others), his relationships with various colleagues, and friends such as Brahms, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Korngold, etc. It also tells of his struggles, disappointments, his efforts to prove that he was "Aryan" to avoid Nazi censure, and his eventual flight to America, where he ran out of money and died, a broken and largely forgotten man. How far his reputation has come since then!

Beaumont also spends a considerable amout of time on muscial analysis of Zemlinsky's works, but it isn't dry and academic. It's fascinating to learn how he worked musical symbols, codes, and names into his works--some originating in the Kabbalah (a form of Jewish mysticism). The book is also lavishly documented, with a complete list of Zemlinsky's works, with composition dates, publication dates, and the location of the manuscripts. It also has a synopsis of each of his operas.

There was only one thing that rankled me a little--that Beaumont takes several shots at Zemlinsky's famous student, Korngold. Some of his comments arise from truths--Korngold's music doesn't plumb the depths of human agony the way Zemlinsky's does, but then, no two composers have exactly the same strengths. And Korngold's music has qualities that Zemlinsky's lacks. For a biographer of Zemlinsky to say, in regards to Korngold's "Die Tote Stadt", that "...as with 'Violanta', the public saw through the glitter, and the work soon vanished from the repertoire" is a cheap shot--if the public is to be the measure of an opera's worth, then why did Zemlinsky's operas vanish? They're both working their way back into the repertoire, and Korngold is probably in the lead. But though I love Korngold, I agree that Zemlinsky was the deeper artist.

Anyone who loves Zemlinsky's music will have their appreciation deepened by reading this book, and the reader unfamiliar with his music will seek it out. His time has indeed come.