London Philharmonic Orchestra: Anne Sofie von Otter sings Zemlinsky

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 3
Zemlinsky Six Maeterlinck Songs
Szymanowski Stabat Mater

Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Elżbieta Szmytka soprano
Anne Sofie von Otter mezzo soprano
Andrzej Dobber baritone
London Philharmonic Choir
London Philharmonic Orchestra

In 1924 the Princesse de Polignac asked Karol Szymanowski to write a large work for soloists, choir and orchestra that might be considered a sort of Polish Requiem. Shortly afterwards, Szymanowski’s niece Ala died, and the composer settled on one of the most moving texts ever written: the Stabat Mater, a poem in which the mother of Christ witnesses her son’s crucifixion. Szymanowski had the words translated into Polish to achieve the direct emotional effect that characterised his music, heightening the poem’s sense of violence. But his Stabat Mater is gentle as well as pained, a work that through its darkness captures a strange, uplifting hope. Vladimir Jurowski conducts it here with Zemlinsky’s glistening, tender songs after Maeterlinck’s poetry.

Supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music Programme.