Composer

The Escher String Quartet has received acclaim for its profound musical insight and rare tonal beauty. A former BBC New Generation Artist and recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the quartet has performed at the BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall and is a regular guest at Wigmore Hall. In its home town of New York, the ensemble serves as season artists of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Escher String Quartet

Maverick Concert Hall

EPSG:4326

3rd Festival Chamber Concert: Polyphonic with Vocals

Munich Residence

Cornelius Meister and the Staatsorchester Stuttgart conclude their multi-year Gustav Mahler cycle with three concerts. Since 2018, they have performed all nine of the Viennese composer’s symphonies together. In just one week, the Stuttgart Liederhalle offers a unique overview of Mahler’s symphonic oeuvre: from the world-embracing First to the tragic Sixth and the pensive, introspective Ninth.

6. Symphony Concert(s)

Beethoven Hall (Beethovensaal)

We're having a celebrity guest at the start of our weekend with the Bavarian State Opera: Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, a member of the ensemble from 2012 to 2016, is a sought-after singer who performs on the world's most important opera and concert stages. She sings Alexander Zemlinsky's extended setting of a poem by Richard Dehmel, whose poetry also inspired Arnold Schoenberg to create his most famous piece, the sextet "Transfigured Night." Interspersed with Richard Wagner's Tristan-like Wesendonck Lieder: unimagined bliss...

The Bavarian State Opera in Blaibach – Polyphonic

Blaibach Concert Hall

When Mozart spent a few days in Linz in 1783, the opportunity to give a concert spontaneously arose. However, he had no finished works at hand. So, within four days, he composed a symphony that later—and quite rightly—became known as the "Linz Symphony." Mozart clearly follows in the footsteps of Haydn, whose symphonies he had previously studied and copied. For the first time, he also opens a symphony with a slow introduction, thus continuing the path he had begun toward a large-scale symphonic form.

7th  Symphony Concert

Music and Congress Hall Lübeck

Molly Snodgrass, soprano

Northwestern Bienen School of Music

Chamber Concert No. 6

Town Hall Hall

Ondřej Adámek is one of the most prominent Czech composers of today. His work is characterized by an original sonic language, rhythmic inventiveness, and an unconventional approach to orchestral writing. The Czech premiere of his Violin Concerto will be performed with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra by violinist Christian Tetzlaff under the baton of conductor Jonathan Nott.

Jonathan Nott and Christian Tetzlaff

Rudolfinum

3rd  Chamber Concert

Hoghehus Lübeck

Almost exactly 100 years separate the two works in this program—and yet they have one thing in common: Both trios enjoyed enormous popularity immediately after their publication. Beethoven's Opus 38 was originally a septet—and in this form, it was one of his most frequently performed works. This is probably one of the reasons why he later reworked it into a piano trio, whose violin part could also be played by a clarinet. Alexander von Zemlinsky, however, had a different "role model" for his clarinet trio: his idol, Johannes Brahms. Brahms politely thanked his colleague for the flowers and advocated for its publication with his publisher, Simrock.

Trio with clarinet

Theater Duisburg

Experience the heartbreaking Adagio from Mahler’s unfinished Symphony No. 10 conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, whose Mahler interpretations Bachtrack calls “devilishly good.” Soprano Camilla Nylund and bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny take the stage in Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony, a monumental exploration of love and longing.

Mahler’s Tenth, Adagio Lyric Symphony

Kennedy Center

Three powerful works explore beauty, desire and loss in strikingly different ways.
A fleeting and vivid portrait of spring, “D’un matin de printemps” offers one of the few glimpses of Lili Boulanger’s remarkable talent, written shortly before her untimely death at the age of 24.

Boulanger, Strauss and Zemlinsky

Smith Square Hall

Three powerful works explore beauty, desire and loss in strikingly different ways. 
A fleeting and vivid portrait of spring, “D’un matin de printemps” offers one of the few glimpses of Lili Boulanger’s remarkable talent, written shortly before her untimely death at the age of 24.

Fulham Symphony Orchestra

Since 2010, chamber music ensembles of the Staatskapelle have been performing at the Bode Museum, a jewel of Berlin's museum landscape. Matinee concerts lasting just over an hour in the Gobelin Hall, with diverse programs that include music from the Baroque and Classical periods as well as works from the Romantic and Modern periods, can easily lead into further hours in the museum—for example, with a guided tour of the exhibition and the "Artwork of the Day," a private tour, or a culinary finale in the stylish museum café.

Museum Concert I

UNESCO Weltkulturerbe Museumsinsel

We open our 80th season with Mahler’s titanic First Symphony; a vivid journey from mysterious dawn through fanfares, folk dances, and intense struggles, culminating in a blisteringly triumphant finale. Gustav Mahler forbade his new wife Alma from composing, claiming, “There is room for only one composer in the family.” We present some of Alma’s early songs, revealing a talented composer lost to the world.

Masterworks 1: The Mahlers

Martin Woldson Theater

Song recital Schuen · Heide

Mozarteum Foundation

Elena Denisova (violin) and conductor Alexei Kornienko present an afternoon of magical sound with their Gustav Mahler Ensemble. The performance includes Gustav Mahler's rarely performed Quartet Movement in A minor (arr. Pavel Singer), Franz Schubert's Rondo in A major D. 438, a chorale by Maximilian Kreuz, Alexander Zemlinsky's Serenade (arr. Franz Hummel), and Igor Stravinsky's Suite Pulcinella. The ensemble captivates with its chamber music depth and orchestral refinement. Wherever Elena Denisova goes, she touches and fascinates music connoisseurs: "She is undoubtedly one of today's violinists' goddesses and gods." (Friedemann Kluge). With the kind support of the Creatives Center Vienna, AKM, and OESTIG.

Gustav Mahler Ensemble · Elena Denisova · Alexei Kornienko

Giedrė Šlekytė conducts works by Dvořák and Zemlinsky

Kultur- & Kongresszentrum Liederhalle

In 1853, Robert Schumann famously declard Johannes Brahms the composer destined to carry Beethoven's legacy forward. Four decades later, Brahms endorsed the publication of Alexander Zemlinksy's Trio, Op. 3 by Simrock in 1896. Three years later, in 1899, Zemlinksy's student, Arnold Schoenberg, composed his groundbreaking work,Verklärte Nacht, (Transfigured Night) Op. 4. We trace this remarkable arc of creativity through early piano trios of these three pivotal figures in the German musical tradition.

CIOMPI PRESENTS 2025 SUMMER MUSIC SERIES - Eric Pritchard

Duke University

Lorenzo Viotti · Zemlinsky, Bruckner

Vienna Music Society

As in our Freitagskonzert 8, we are travelling to Vienna in the last chamber concert of the season, to a time of decadence, decay and overwrought nerves. But also to a time of awakening, of rewiring these nerves, which were treated by Doctor Freud and his colleagues. Intoxicating chamber music awaits us, centred around the shortest but best-known piece on the programme: the Adagietto from Mahler’s 5th Symphony, immortalised by the Visconti-film Death in Venice. The piano really roars here, taking over the harp part from the original version … Alexander Zemlinsky’s Piano Trio is the oldest piece on the programme and looks back to the past, as it is strongly influenced by Johannes Brahms. Mahler’s symphony was composed around five years later and looks back and forward at the same time – a seemingly timeless work. And Korngold’s Suite from 1930? Written for the left hand of the war-wounded pianist Paul Wittgenstein (like works by Ravel, Prokofieff, Britten and many others), it is no longer the bold work of a child prodigy of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, but a grandiose homage to the splendour of music that has fallen out of time and hangs in no man’s land, between sparseness and opulence, optimism and pessimism, forward and backward-looking …

Vienna on the move

Beethoven-Haus Bonn

Simone Young

Gasteig HP8

Experience the evocative power of music with "Echoes of Time," a captivating performance by the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus. Under the masterful direction of conductor Sameer Patel, this concert promises to be a profound auditory journey, exploring the intricate interplay between past and present through a carefully curated selection of compositions. The La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, renowned for their artistic excellence and innovative programming, will bring to life a repertoire that resonates with timeless themes and contemporary relevance. Set in the acoustically rich Mandeville Auditorium, the performance will envelop the audience in a sonic tapestry that highlights the ensemble's dynamic range and expressive depth. "Echoes of Time" is an opportunity to witness the convergence of tradition and modernity, as the musicians interpret works that reflect the enduring human spirit and its myriad expressions through time.

Echoes of Time

University of California San Diego

Spend your Sunday afternoons savoring exquisite string music in a superb venue in the midst of one of San Francisco’s most beautiful spots—the Presidio.

In this new Beischer Family Sunday Strings series, a mix of highly acclaimed musicians—some veterans, some rising stars—come together for a series of captivating collaborative performances in the historic Presidio Theatre, curated by renowned violinist Owen Dalby.

Make a day of it with a visit to the Presidio’s stunning Tunnel Tops park or a stroll at Crissy Field, grab a delectable bite at a food truck or one of the park’s restaurants, then bask in an engaging, uplifting performance that’s perfect for a Sunday afternoon.

Owen DalbyViolin Geneva LewisViolin Masumi Per RostadViola Hannah CollinsCello

Presidio Theatre Performing Arts Center

When the Parker Quartet first performed at Carnegie Hall, The New York Times wrote, “Superb string quartets are plentiful ... [but this] performance set the group apart as something extraordinary.” The Grammy Award­–winning quartet’s reputation and musical command have only continued to grow—as has its remarkably broad repertoire that includes both timeless staples and music by today’s boldest artists. Experience a pair of late 19th–century masterworks by Zemlinsky and Brahms, as well as Thomas Adès’s The Four Quarters—a Carnegie Hall commission called “a fascinating, virtuosic, and spectacularly colorful journey ... proof that the string quartet genre is still alive, well, and inspiring brilliant new work” (The Washington Post).

Parker Quartet

Carnegie Hall

Studiosound

Bavaria Musik Studios

»Sweet melancholy is the true nature of true love.« This quote by Novalis is an excellent reflection of our relationship with Jonathan Nott: since the turn of the millennium, he held the musical reins together from the podium for 16 years as our Chief Conductor in over 650 always original concerts both in Bamberg and on tour. On his departure, he said somewhat melancholically: »When we all – orchestra and conductor – achieve a result together, then we are influenced by each other. And even if we never see each other again: All the musicians of the Bamberg Symphony  are a part of my life.« Fortunately, he has been returning regularly as a guest ever since – and this year’s programme is the start of a concert series with him over the next few seasons, which will also take us to places that were the centres of the chosen musical period. It once again bears his unmistakably individual and highly dedicated handwriting: After all, the English maestro honed our musical profile for musical modernism particularly intensively and lastingly during his time. Now it’s a concentration on two related works that were premiered together in Vienna 120 years ago – with each of the two composers conducting their own piece: Zemlinsky conducted his orchestral fantasy »The Mermaid« based on the well-known fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. His former student, then brother-in-law and friend Schönberg performed his tone poem »Pelléas et Mélisande«, based on Maeterlinck’s wonderful drama – which Jonathan Nott has long held dear to his heart. There is no doubt, therefore, that he will be a safe guide through these two works, revelling in late Romanticism.

Jonathan Nott

Bamberg Concert Hall

This special additional performance of the Pro Arte Wind Quintet sees the return of Pro Arte to the Congregation Beth El in Sudbury features a variety of works by significant composers for the genre. This performance will be complemented by an additional performance at the Salon Series home venue: the Allen Center for Arts and Culture on Sunday, February 9, 2025.

Winds Of Pro Arte At

Congregation Beth El

The Allen Center

Stefan Dohr, who is the solo horn player in the Berlin Philharmonic by day, is Artist-in-Residence at the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra this season, and he is the soloist in the Horn Concerto No. 2, which Strauss wrote late in his life. While many other composers at the time were preoccupied with new sources of musical inspiration, Strauss stuck to the beautiful, late romantic music. The horn has always featured heavily in his works. His father was a very famous – and infamous – horn player who was admired for his fantastic sound. In the manuscript, Strauss dedicated the concerto to his late father, but the dedication was not included in the publication.

Strauss & Brahms

Aalborg Central Waterfront

The Twilight of the Austrian Hapsburg Empire

First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City

Chamber Concert: Wind Quintets from Two Centuries

Max-Joseph-Platz

The young conductor Thomas Guggeis, having sensationally jumped in for his mentor Daniel Barenboim in Berlin and now the General Music Director at the Oper Frankfurt, makes his “academic” debut with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and presents us a symphonic rarity. Alexander Zemlinsky’s Fantasia for Orchestra, Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid – based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale), conducted by the composer at its 1905 world premiere in Vienna. The composer’s unhappy relationship with his pupil Alma Schindler, who after a passionate affair left him for Gustav Mahler, is reflected in this powerfully sonorous portrayal of the mermaid’s fate. Perhaps because of this personal background, Zemlinsky decided not to perform the piece. It was thought to be lost and was not performed for almost seventy years. Mendelssohn’s Overture to the Fair Melusine is also based on the world of water spirits and tells the story of a close relative of the mermaid. Aigul Akhmetshina also sings of the coming and going of love. Ernest Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer op. 19 links the story of a love affair with the atmosphere of the sea.

Academy Concert: Thomas Guggeis

Internationally recognized for their inspiring performances and luminous sounds, the GRAMMY Award-winning Parker Quartet has distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation. Winners of multiple international competitions, the Parker Quartet is also a recipient of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, and is the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University. Members of the Quartet will also work with SFCM students in various masterclasses during their residency.

Chamber Music Tuesday with Parker Quartet

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

It’s Princess Donna Clara’s 18th birthday and she’s getting showered with presents from all sides, but one gift in particular, from the Turkish Sultan, stands out from the crowd: a real-life dwarf! Amidst all the splendour and beauty the misshapen man attracts her special attention, charming her with his singing and fascinating her all the more for seeming to be blissfully unaware of his physical appearance. The dwarf falls madly in love with the princess and is blind to the coquettish game that she is playing. But then he comes face-to-face with his reflection for the first time in his life. Realising the truth of his situation, he falls down dead. Alexander Zemlinsky’s THE DWARF is based on Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale “The Birthday of the Infanta” and received its world premiere in 1922. Following Zemlinsky’s death in 1942 in American exile the work quickly slipped from public awareness, not to be rediscovered until the 1970s. Since then it has been drawing crowds as a subtle, vibrant seismogram of a highly complex and psychological constellation.

Der Zwerg (The Dwarf)

Deutsche Oper Berlin

A chalk circle, a child in the centre. Each child's arm is pulled by a woman who claims to be the mother. "The right mother will have the right strength," says Prince Pao - it will be the one who lets go of her child so as not to tear it apart. By the time Haitang is able to hold her child in her arms again, she has an odyssey of injustice under her belt. Abandoned, sold, mistreated, slandered and convicted of murder, it is nothing short of a miracle that justice unexpectedly receives strong intercession here.

Der Kreidekreis

German Oper am Rhein

It’s always a pleasure when Gil Shaham is in town and he’ll dazzle you with string pyrotechnics in Tchaikovsky’s magnificent Violin Concerto. The gorgeous second movement will stir your heart before the adrenaline rush of the concerto’s finale.
 
Mendelssohn visited Scotland in 1829 and found inspiration for his “Scottish Symphony” in the chapel ruins of Edinburgh’s Holyrood palace as well as the beautiful natural surroundings. The melodies are memorable and you’ll be astonished at Mendelssohn’s ability to evoke the “misty mood” of Scotland. 

Matthias Pintscher Welcomes Gil Shaham

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

As an adventurous young lad, the composer Richard Strauss lost his way climbing up one of the Alps. Later, at the height of his compositional powers, he captured that experience in a piece of symphonic music that details eleven hours, dawn to nightfall, of a treacherous climb.  FWSO Principal Guest Conductor Kevin John Edusei will open the concert with Mozart’s Overture to Don Giovanni, which pivots from high melodrama to a more comic tone, and a rarely heard modernist treat by Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky.

Mozart and Strauss

Sundance Square

Internationally recognized for their “fearless, yet probingly beautiful” (The Strad) performances, the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet has distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation, dedicated purely to the sound and depth of their music. Inspired performances and exceptional musicianship are hallmarks of the Quartet, having appeared at the world’s most illustrious venues since its founding in 2002.

Groton Hill Music Center

As is our custom, the season ends in Det Gule Palæ with beautiful tones.

Summer in the Yellow Palace

The Yellow Mansion

In June 2024, the Oslo Philharmonic, together with chief conductor Klaus Mäkelä and soloist Daniel Lozakovich, will go to some of Europe's most prestigious concert halls.

European Tour Klaus Mäkelä

Wiener Konzerthaus

Cellist Mischa Maisky is one of classical music's biggest stars. Here he plays Antonín Dvořák's famous Cello Concerto. Klaus Mäkelä conducts Alexander von Zemlinsky's orchestral fantasy Die Seejungfrau, based on the fairy tale of The Little Mermaid.

Klaus Mäkelä Mischa Maisky

Oslo Concert Hall

Klaus Mäkelä dirigerer Alexander von Zemlinskys orkesterfantasi Die Seejungfrau, basert på eventyret om Den lille havfrue.

Classical Hour Klaus Mäkelä

James Conlon continues his exploration of Recovered Voices with a rare performance of the Lyric Symphony by Alexander von Zemlinsky, a onetime star of Vienna’s music scene who fled Nazi Germany and died in obscurity in New York. Opera standouts Melody Moore and Lucas Meachem bring the huge emotions of this ambitious score to life. Conlon, who “conducts like a man with Beethoven encoded into his muscle memory” (The Washington Post), takes a romp through Beethoven’s jovial Second Symphony. 

Bso: Beethoven Symphony No. 2

The Music Center at Strathmore

James Conlon continues his exploration of Recovered Voices with a rare performance of the Lyric Symphony by Alexander von Zemlinsky, a onetime star of Vienna’s music scene who fled Nazi Germany and died in obscurity in New York. Opera standouts Melody Moore and Lucas Meachem bring the huge emotions of this ambitious score to life.

Beethoven Symphony No. 2

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

The esteemed and popular Alexander String Quartet has enlivened SF Performances seasons for more than three decades, joined by Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. Together they explore in music and words some of chamber music’s most intriguing and important composers, their works, lives, and times. Looking back to the early years of the last century, the Quartet and Greenberg will explore the rich history of bright innovation and creation during often dark times.

Alexander String Quartet with Robert Greenberg 5

War Memorial and Performing Arts Center

Join us for an enchanting evening of chamber music as CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra presents its March Chamber Series. 
The program for the evening features a selection of mesmerizing works that promise to transport the audience through a range of emotions and soundscapes. The lineup includes Amanda Harberg's "Lucas’ Garden," Igor Stravinsky's "L’histoire du soldat," and Alexander von Zemlinsky's "Clarinet Trio, Op. 3." These pieces will be brought to life by the exceptional talents of Daniel Gilbert on clarinet, Kiarra Saito-Beckman on violin, Anna Kuo on cello, and Donna Lee on piano.

March Chamber Series

Praxis Fiber Workshop

Under the baton of American conductor JoAnn Falletta, Zemlinksy’s The Mermaid comes to life through music and sand, thanks to the international icon and sand art pioneer Kseniya Simonova. The Ukranian artist’s creation of a work of sand art will be live streamed during the performance.

A Pact Set in Sand

Église catholique Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs

Place des Arts

Rachmaninoff

Civic Center Music Hall

Yes, Zemlinsky’s The Mermaid was inspired by the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale and the music bubbles along with cheer and pathos. But there’s more to the story: Zemlinsky wrote the piece after suffering a heartbreak when his paramour left him for another composer, and the score was thought to be long lost. A pair of British music sleuths tracked down the work, however. The evening concludes with Brahms’ second piano concerto, which he described as a “very small piano concerto with a very small and pretty scherzo.”

Mermaids from Zemlinsky and Brahms

Bass Performance Hall

Violinist Clara-Jumi Kang is an artist "as ready to caress as to attack" (The Strad). In her DSO debut, she takes command in Korngold's gorgeously cinematic concerto. We hear new "feisty, energy-packed" music (The Guardian) by composer Arlene Sierra, and Zemlinsky's programmatic adventure takes us through the fairytale dramas of Hans Christian Andersen's original Little Mermaid. 

Korngold Violin Concerto

Orchestra Hall

Two inventive singers unite at the Scottish Rite Temple to close the 10th Anniversary of Festival of Song: Lauren Snouffer and Rolando Villazón. Lauren Snouffer, one of the most versatile and respected sopranos on the international stage, will open the Santa Fe Opera’s Orfeo as La Musica. We also welcome the production’s Orfeo, legendary tenor and Renaissance man Rolando Villazón, praised the world over as “the most charming of today’s divos” (The Times). Join us for the final Festival of Song and celebrate the voices of these critically acclaimed artists.

10th Anniversary of Festival of Song: Lauren Snouffer and Rolando Villazón

Scottish Rite Temple

The AMFS is thrilled to welcome Matthias Pintscher, the brilliant composer, conductor and incoming Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony to the Benedict Tent stage. Joining him for Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto will be Yunchan Lim, the Van Cliburn winner who triumphed in Aspen last summer with a brilliant recital and has since conquered the world including a sold out run at the NY Philharmonic.

Program and Artist Change: Chamber Symphony: Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto

Aspen Meadows Resort

For decades, conductor James Conlon has championed composers whose names and works had very nearly been eliminated during the Holocaust. Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff had a prolific 30-year career, composing eight symphonies, chamber music, jazz piano pieces, at least one oratorio, and an opera. He was effectively silenced by the Nazi regime and eventually died in a concentration camp. Zemlinsky and Schoenberg were luckier, managing to emigrate to the United States where Schoenberg was celebrated in the Los Angeles of the 1930s and 40s, while Zemlinsky floundered and eventually stopped composing. The dominance of Schoenberg’s atonal style up until the 1970s may well be due in part to the elimination of composers whose work had a connection to Romantic musical traditions. This program unveils a few examples of once-forbidden and forgotten works by composers who could have changed the course of music history.

A Recital: Recovered Voices with James Conlon

Recital: Recovered Voices with James Conlon

A Summer Evening Concert of Clarinet Trios

University of Hawaii at Manoa

Alexander Zemlinsky fell in love with his composition student Alma Schindler, but she rejected him and married Gustav Mahler. Lustspiel Overture’s lush melodies echo those of Brahms, who was a supporter of the young Zemlinsky.
Alma Schindler was an accomplished composer before she gave it up to marry Gustav Mahler. Within a few years, unfulfilled and depressed, she had an affair, which prompted Gustav to take Alma’s musical ambitions more seriously. These five songs were the only works by Alma Mahler to be published in her husband’s lifetime.
Hans Rott and Gustav Mahler were classmates and roommates in late 1870s Vienna but their fortunes diverged soon after, and Rott died in an asylum at age 25. Rott’s one and only completed symphony—receiving its California premiere here—bears many similarities to Mahler’s works, and scholars are only now uncovering Rott’s enormous influence on his celebrated friend.

Mahler's Inner Circle

Lesher Center for the Arts

Mendelssohn's Reformation

Severance Music Center

Vienna, early twentieth century. Under pressure from industrialization, the rise of psychoanalysis and growing social tensions, familiar world views are losing their footing and the refined styles of the fin de siècle their lustre. In music, literature and the visual arts, the boundaries of expression are being radically pushed back. Composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alexander von Zemlinsky each sought, in their own way, a new sound idiom, rooted in late Romanticism but unmistakably turned towards the future. During this concert, Alain Altinoglu will showcase three of their masterpieces, all written at this turning point in European cultural history.

Vienna

BOZAR

Ranking among the highlights of Zemlinsky’s Prague concert activities was the performance of Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand in March 1912, and the Prague premiere of Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder in June 1921. When it comes to Alexander Zemlinsky’s own music, today’s programme includes his magnificent settings of two Old Testament psalms for choir and orchestra, dating from 1900 and 1935, respectively.

Mahler – Schönberg – Zemlinsky

State Opera

A legendary melody. Powerful, octave-jumping fingerwork. A piece initially deemed “worthless” evolving into an undisputed classic. The spirit of Romantic rebellion lives on in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, the work widely regarded as the “King of the Concert Hall,” performed to heroic heights by pianist George Li.

Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with George Li

Salt Palace Convention Center

A party is thrown to celebrate the birthday of the 18-year-old Crown Princess. A Sultan has sent her a dwarf as a present – a creature endowed with a sensitive heart, yet doomed to nothing but providing entertainment. Never having seen his image in a mirror, the dwarf is not aware of his physical deformity and inhabits the illusory world of innocent self-confidence. Infatuated by the Infanta’s beauty, he falls in love with her and naively dreams of becoming her brave champion. The girl, however, merely only toys with the dwarf and gifts him a white rose – a symbol of purity and false hope. When the dwarf gets to see his reflection in a mirror for the first time, he is appalled, whereupon his delusional universe comes tumbling down. Heartbroken and clutching the white rose, he dies, while the Infanta’s party continues  indifferently. The story lays bare the cruelty of the world of power and beauty, and the tragic discrepancy between the inner human value and outer semblance.

Tap into your inner child with a piano concerto that might make you feel as though you’ve entered a toy shop, performed by the dazzling Alice Sara Ott. Then, we’ll head “Far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower, and as clear as crystal…” to hear Alexander Zemlinsky's musical retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid.

Composer

Alexander von Zemlinsky

Events

Upcoming events

24 - 25 Oct, 2026

Vienna · La Monnaie / De Munt

Nov 26, 2026

Mahler – Schönberg – Zemlinsky · Národní divadlo

5 - 6 Feb, 2027

Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with George Li · Utah Symphony

Feb 18 - Mar 30, 2027

Der Zwerg (The Dwarf) · Národní divadlo

25 - 26 Feb, 2027

Ravel Piano Concerto in G · Minnesota Orchestra

Past events

Aug 9, 2026

Escher String Quartet · Maverick Concerts

Jul 16, 2026

3rd Festival Chamber Concert: Polyphonic with Vocals · Bayerisches Staatsorchester

About

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