Zwerg

In Vienna, Alexander Zemlinsky and Franz Schreker conducted experiments that could be seen as a middle road between the rigorous writing of Brahms, the orchestral opulence of Richard Strauss and the dodecaphonic radicalism of Schönberg, Berg and Webern. Unfortunately their experiments were cut short when the Nazis came to power and banned their music. Vasily Petrenko's colourful and imaginative conducting reminds us of these two composers' central importance for the history of early 20th-century music.