Mermaids from Zemlinsky and Brahms

Overview

Yes, Zemlinsky’s The Mermaid was inspired by the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale and the music bubbles along with cheer and pathos. But there’s more to the story: Zemlinsky wrote the piece after suffering a heartbreak when his paramour left him for another composer, and the score was thought to be long lost. A pair of British music sleuths tracked down the work, however. The evening concludes with Brahms’ second piano concerto, which he described as a “very small piano concerto with a very small and pretty scherzo.”