Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra Great Composers

BRAHMS: Piano Concerto in D minor, op. 15
ZEMLINSKY: The Mermaid – Symphonic Poem

Simon Trpceski – piano
Hungarian National Philharmonic
Conductor: Andrey Boreyko

This Romantic concert will be led by the Russian conductor and Director of the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra Andrey Boreyko (b.1957), while the soloist is the Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski (b. 1979). These two artists are popular figures on the international concert scene, and are both signed to major record labels. The same cannot be said for the Austrian conductor and composer Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871–1942), whose musical career did not meet with success. He may have written late-Romantic music with incredibly beautiful melodies, but von Zemlinsky found himself on the margins of musical history in his own lifetime. The words of his one-time pupil, Arnold Schönberg, were of little help (and perhaps made matters worse): "I always believed he was a great composer." Nor did he benefit from being among the group of Viennese musicians around Gustav Mahler, or his status as a major opera conductor, conducting the successful Vienna premieres of Salome and Tosca in 1900. The symphonic poem The Mermaid (Die Seejungfrau) is based on the story of the Danish storyteller Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid. After witnessing this performance by the Hungarian National Philharmonic, we sincerely hope many listeners will have new-found respect for this unjustly neglected composer.