Proms 2024 Prom 5: Zemlinsky’s The Mermaid

At a concert in Vienna on 25 January 1905, two new, constrastingly impactful orchestral works were heard for the first time. In his response to Maurice Maeterlinck’s drama on the doomed love between Pelleas and Melisande, Arnold Schoenberg (born 150 years ago) pushes a colossal symphony orchestra to its limits. But Alexander Zemlinsky wasn’t going to let Schoenberg (also his brother-in-law) steal the show, and wore his broken heart on his sleeve in his orchestral response to the well-known Hans Christian Andersen story The Little Mermaid. Ryan Bancroft marshals his BBC National Orchestra of Wales in two monumental tearjerkers that share far more than a birthday.

Broadcast live on BBC Radio 3

Image: Ryan Bancroft © Benjamin Ealovega