SACDs - Zemlinsky

“the expressionistic Zemlinsky Quartet...play these scores with scorching insight.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 *****

“[No. 2's] flux of continuous variation on a single motto, without obvious repetition, asks a lot of any listener. More personal and fully achieved is No. 4...The shadow of Mahler remains here, and nothwithstanding elements of the burlesque and the sardonic, you feel that it's through his lyrical temperament that Zemlinsky most convincingly identifies himself.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2012

“Zemlinsky’s music is so much more complex, gorgeous and painful than any verbal resume can convey. Yet Eshenbach makes it all come together beautifully… (he) is joined by two superb soloists, on finest form, both with as strong a feeling for the greater melody as the conductor…Strongly recommended.” BBC Music Magazine

“…Christoph Eschenbach has such an acute feeling for the musical line - whether it is carried by the voices or the orchestra - and such a fine ear for aural perspective, that it all comes together beautifully. Matthias Goerne is majestic and tender, and thrillingly true on every note. ...Christine Schäfer... sings with such character, passion and tender sensitivity that I feel faintly guilty for mentioning the odd tiny fault.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2006 *****

“There have been several memorable recordings of Zemlinsky's masterpiece and this one, the first for many years, can be placed in their company.
Christoph Eschenbach and his soloists clearly agree that the Lyric Symphony is not simply an orchestral song-cycle but a symphonic music-drama: the resulting performance has all the vividness and immediacy of a live event yet – equally importantly – excessive histrionics are avoided. This is music that needs no nudging or special pleading to exercise its power and poignancy.
Matthias Goerne has the combination of vocal heft and lyric mellifluousness necessary to sustain the demanding lines of the work's four oddnumbered episodes. Perhaps the third section, with its particularly sumptuous orchestral backcloth, could have taken a degree or two more of sheer vocal refinement, but overall Goerne does full justice to the heart-rending finale.
Christine Schäfer is especially convincing in the dramatic final stages of the second movement, and also in the expressionistic sixth. Ideally, the fourth movement's gentle lover's plea might be even more rapt, more other-worldly than it is here. But this reading fits well with the interpretation as a whole. The voices are forwardly placed without loss of orchestral detail, and only in the brief, turbulent fifth movement might one feel that the instrumental sound needs more edge. Even so, the orchestral playing throughout is superb.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Christoph Eschenbach and his soloists clearly agree that the Lyric Symphony is not simply an orchestral song-cycle but a symphonic music-drama: the resulting performance has all the vividness and immediacy of a live event… Matthias Goerne has the combination of vocal heft and lyric mellifluousness necessary to sustain the demanding lines of the work's four odd-numbered episodes. ...Goerne yields little in compelling characterisation to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau... Bryn Terfel... or Håkan Hagegård... Similarly, Christine Schäfer is a worthy successor to Julia Varady, Deborah Voigt and Alexandra Marc. She is especially convincing in the dramatic final stages of the second movement, and also in the expressionistic sixth. ...the orchestral playing throughout is superb.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2006

“To open the disc, a fascinating torso: Zemlinsky's unfinished setting of a poem by Richard Dehmel for soprano and string sextet. Here is a whiff of the mature composer in the vividness with which he reacts to the tragic text and the luminosity of the string-writing. The performances are more than serviceable without being visionary.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2011

“The Zemlinsky Quartet encompass both the youthful ardour of their namesake's First and the expressionist angst of the Third Quartet with impressive insight.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2008 *****

“One hopes that the Zemlinsky Quartet would offer special insights into the quartets of Zemlinsky, and so it proves: these performances are excellent, both technically and temperamentally.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2007

''The Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid) Fantasy, based on Hans Andersen's tale, is truly wonderful. You'd be forgiven for mistaking it for a Hollywood score. Beautifully recorded, masterfully played.'' Classic FM Magazine