Named as one of Gramophone Magazine's Recordings of the Year, and one of BBC Radio 3's Record Review Records of the Year.
 
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko conductor
 
Zemlinksy Die Seejungfrau
Schreker Der Geburtstag der Infantin
 
Premiered in the same concert as his brother-in-law Schoenberg’s ‘Pelleas und Melisande’ in 1905, Zemlinsky’s Die Seejungfrau (after Hans Christian Andersen) was almost ignored by the reviewers. Considered too conservative for the progressives, and too progressive for the conservatives, Zemlinsky struggled to overcome the negative reviews of this masterpiece and withdrew it in the immediate aftermath of the premiere. For this recording, Vasily Petrenko  uses the original version of the score which restores the ‘bei der Meerhexe’ episode to the 2nd movement.
 
Schreker’s Dance Pantomime ‘Der Geburtstag der Infantin’ (story by Oscar Wilde) was given its premiere in 1908 and was his first big success. One of the most progressive of the Viennese composers of this period, Schreker’s star would sadly wane, aided by the rise of anti – Semitism and the Nazis.
 
★★★★★ Norman Lebrecht
"Needless to say, this COVID-year album by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and their departing conductor Vasily Petrenko is demonstrably irresistible. Played with no stops pulled or holds barred, this is a wash of sound we have been dying to hear, if not in a live hall then on record. And when we do get back into a hall, I will be the first in line demanding to know why orchestras don’t play sounds like these that wet our lips, instead of tick-box works by marginal try-hards. Bring back orchestral decadence, all is forgiven."