Zemlinsky: Chamber Works (Incls cello sonata)

MusicWeb - Recording of the Year 2008

"This new recording of a selection of early chamber works by Zemlinsky is marked out by the stunning quality of the playing. This is remarkably accomplished, most especially in the Sonata and offers a big, full, polished Viennese sound. The recording is excellent, and altogether the quality of sound is first rate - all the more so for a budget label."
(MusicWeb Bargain of the Month Oct 2008)

The music of Alexander Zemlinsky has come to the attention of an increasingly wide public over the past quarter-century. As with many of his contemporaries, chamber music features prominently in Zemlinsky's formative years. The three works on this recording, written during the 1890s, reveal a skilful and assured figure in the process of working free of influences, notably Brahms. The Cello Sonata is a substantial work, notable for a dark-hued slow movement and a warmly lilting finale. While indebted to Brahms in its scoring, the Clarinet Trio is nonetheless Zemlinsky in its formal and expressive approach, and today certainly ranks among his most performed works.