The Frankfurt born soprano Petra Lang is one of today’s foremost interpreters of the Richard Wagner repertoire. Having started as a lyric mezzo she quickly developed into a highly-in-demand interpreter of dramatic rôles such as Wagner’s Brangäne, Kundry, Venus, Sieglinde, and Ortrud, Bartók’s Judith, Berg’s Marie, Berlioz’s Cassandre and Strauss’s Ariadne.

Since her register change in 2012 she is a sought-after Brünnhilde and gave her highly acclaimed rôle début as Isolde at the 2016 Bayreuth Festival. She won two GRAMMY^® Awards for her Cassandre on the London Symphony Orchestra’s live recording of Berlioz’s Les Troyens. She teaches young singers at international master-classes.

The ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra of world renown; it defines itself in the Vienna orchestral tradition and is known for its exceptional, bold programming. Marin Alsop took over as Chief Conductor in September 2019.

The ORF Vienna RSO regularly performs in two subscription series in Vienna, in the Musikverein Wien and the Wiener Konzerthaus. In addition, it appears every year at major Austrian and international festivals. Tours to European countries and overseas are a regular part of the ORF Vienna RSO schedule as well. Since 2007, the orchestra has successfully collaborated with the MusikTheater an der Wien, thereby gaining an excellent reputation as an opera orchestra. Yet the ORF Vienna RSO is also entirely at home in the film music genre.

The broad scope of the orchestra’s recording activities includes works in every genre, among them many first recordings that represent modern Austrian classicists and contemporary Austrian composers. In 2024 the ORF Vienna RSO received the renowned ICMA Special Achievement Award for the recording of the complete Bruckner symphonies in all versions, conducted by Markus Poschner. The ORF Vienna RSO has also launched a broad-based educational program.

www.rso.orf.at

Photo: Nancy Horowitz

Friend, teacher and later brother-in-law of Schoenberg, Alexander Zemlinsky won growing importance in the Viennese musical world at the beginning of the 20th century. He taught Alma Mahler, who discussed with her husband, with reference to Zemlinsky, the relationship between physical ugliness and spiritual beauty. His earlier career was at the Vienna Volksoper, in Prague and in Berlin. 1933 forced his return to Vienna, from where he fled in 1938 via Prague to the United States of America, dying there in 1942.

Stage Works
Mahler promised, before his resignation, to stage the ballet Das gläserne Herz at the Vienna Court Opera, a work based on Hofmannsthal from which an orchestral suite was later derived. Zemlinsky’s two operas based on Oscar Wilde, Eine florentinische Tragödie (‘A Florentine Tragedy’) and Der Zwerg (‘The Dwarf’), based on Wilde’s The Birthday of the Infanta, won contemporary success.

Orchestral Music
In addition to three symphonies, Zemlinsky wrote a Lyric Symphony for soprano, baritone and orchestra, based on Rabindranath Tagore, and, in 1934, a Sinfonietta. His Die Seejungfrau (‘The Little Mermaid’), a fantasy for orchestra, is based on the story by Hans Andersen.

Chamber Music
Chamber music by Zemlinsky includes four string quartets and a Clarinet Trio.

Piano Music
Zemlinsky’s reputation as a composer does not rest on his piano music, which represents a relatively small part of his work, generally dating from early in his career.

Vocal and Choral Music
Choral works by Zemlinsky include psalm settings, while his songs, worthy of attention, continue an older German tradition in the context of Vienna at the time of the Second Viennese School.