November 1996

Lyric Symphony, Op. 18 (1923) - Deborah Voigt (soprano); Bryn Terfel (bass-baritone); Vienna Philharmonic/ Giuseppe Sinopoli - Deutsche Grammophon 449 179-2 - 49:11 DDD

Alexander Zemlinsky remains obstinately at the periphery of twentieth-century music. He is famous for being Schoenberg's brother-in-law and teacher, for his superb conducting, advocacy of new music, and so on; but his own work never quite lodges in the repertoire. The Lyric Symphony, almost certainly his finest work - though his operas contain many interesting things - shows what is missing, especially in Giuseppe Sinopoli's superlative Deutsche Grammophon recording. The work lacks a recognizable personal voice we expect from composers these days, as wouldn't have been the case 200 years ago. Sometimes it sounds much like Mahler, whose Lied von der Erde is the manifest model (Mahler didn't call Das Lied a symphony for superstitious reasons). Sometimes it sounds like Berg who actually quotes this work in his Lyric Suite, but cruelly it is the quotation rather than its source we think of.

In the era he was composing, music tends to be either super-charged, as with Schoenberg and his followers, Scriabin, Schreker, and so on; or in revolt against that, using "neo-classic" effects as with Stravinsky and many French composers. Zemlinsky is closer to the first group, yet his music is less sweltering so it's easy to think it is failing to do something it may not have been attempting.

Sinopoli's recording is the first that has firmly persuaded me that is the answer, by giving me a fully satisfactory musical experience on its own terms, and making clear what they are. He is in command of magnificent forces, the Vienna Philharmonic, live, at its most responsive, producing glorious but not glutinous riches; and for once, he exercises some restraint and doesn't impose his own idiosyncrasies on the work. The soloists are wonderful too. I doubt whether the baritone part, which alternates in the songs with the soprano, has ever been as well projected as by Terfel. He easily rides the orchestral storm, his voice sounding under no strain. He is also intimate without being coy. Deborah Voigt is almost on his level.

- Michael Tanner