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.
Just like a number of other composers, including Mahler, in the orchestral song genre Arnold Schönberg drew inspiration from the famous collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Besides texts from this book, for his cycle 6 Orchester-Lieder, Op. 8, he chose a poem by Heinrich Hart and three Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) sonnets. On 29 January 1914, three songs – Das Wappenschild, Voll jener Süße and Wenn Vöglein klagen – received their world premiere at the Neues deutsches Theater, with Zemlinsky conducting, upon Schönberg’s request and in his presence.
Gustav Mahler too deemed the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn, published by the poets Achim von Arnim and Clemens von Brentano in 1808, an inexhaustible source of inspiration. He set 24 of its texts for voice and piano, and later on orchestrated some of the songs.
