Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 1 - Zemlinsky: Lyric Symphony

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Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony, composed only seven years apart, while differing widely differing in their choice of soloists, are united in their source of inspiration. The Lyric Symphony is Zemlinsky’s best known work and an homage to Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde”. It sets poems by Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) to equally poetic music. Szymanowski likely received his inspiration for the violin concerto from “Noc Majowa” (May Night), a poem by the Polish poet Tadeusz Micinski. The work is recognized as the first “modern“ violin concerto, as Szymanowski rejects the 19th-century tradition and the major-minor system, introducing a new music language full of ecstatic raptures and poetic tension.