Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942) was a conductor in Vienna, Prague and then Berlin and whilst not a prolific composer was a member of the Second Viennese School. With the rise of Nazism he eventually settled in the USA. But during the difficult times he composed his Sinfonietta.
We watched the brass mutes being put in place, the strings playing pizzicato, plucking the chords, and sul ponticello, bowing close to the bridge. The second of the three movements particularly demonstrated the talent of a composer who in Austria taught Korngold the art of composition.
Nicola Benedetti was the soloist for Eric Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto. Korngold (1897-1957), a boy genius composer, also feared Nazism and went to Hollywood, USA in 1934 when his career in writing music for films began. But he took time in 1945 to write his Violin Concerto as a piece of serious music not intended as a film score.
It was easy to detect sections as Nicola Benedetti played with the Orchestra behind her that could well have been used for a film. But it was a complete concerto which the capacity audience thoroughly enjoyed.
Although we claim Nicola Bendetti as our own she is half Italian. She gave us a short solo piece by Paganini to highlight the concert’s sponsorship by the Italian Cultural Institute in Edinburgh to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy.
Even with Walter Weller, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s Conductor Emeritus, the Beethoven Symphony No 4 might have been a let down. But he was not going to let this happen. The least known of Beethoven’s symphonies it is often said that it is played simply to complete the set of nine. But it proved a very satisfactory exemplification of all that is the genius of Beethoven’s music. There were smiles on the faces of the audience as they left for home.
Event: Friday 1 April 2011 6.45 pm (talk), 7.30 pm (concert)