Ravishing Late Romanticism

A ravishing recording of Zemlinsky's Lyrical Symphony with the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Christoph Eschenbach with top of the range soloists, Christine Schafer soprano and Matthias Goerne baritone. It is also an SACD recording which seems to give enhanced sound quality even on my non suround sound equipment. This is a work that benefits from all those luxuries too. it shares obvious links with Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and Schoenberg's Gurrelieder in that it is an ambitious sweeping work full of romanticism and merging symphony and song. The seven songs set here are linked through leitmotifs and variations. The texts form a dramatic narrative and use translations of the writings of Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, dialogues between a prince and girl who are in love but slowly drifting apart because of aesthetic differences. This recording won many plaudits and it is a little disappointing to see that it hasn't been followed up by a revival in interest in staging the work as a concert item.