Alexander von Zemlinsky (Oct. 14, 1871 - March 15, 1942) was born in Vienna, Austria, and played the piano from a young age. Admitted to the Vienna Conservatory in 1884, and won the school's piano prize in 1890. He began writing in 1892, when he started studying theory with Robert Fuchs, and composition with Johann Nepomuk Fuchs and Anton Bruckner.

There are many prominent composers that had significant parts in his development and recognition as a composer.  Gustav Mahler helped push Zemlinsky's reputation as a composer when he conducted his opera Es war einmal. Zemlinsky had a fan in Johannes Brahms, and so much so that Brahms recommended the N. Simrock company to publish Zemlinsky's Clarinet Trio, which we are looking at today.

Originally written for clarinet, cello, and piano, the publisher Simrock asked Zemlinsky for a violin part so ensembles could play the standard trio configuration. Zemlinsky obliged, but went beyond just transcribing the clarinet part---he wrote a separate, different violin part, as if he were writing a different trio.

The first movement begins with the clarinet and cello in unison, and then opens up more broadly, firmly entrenched in late Romanticism. Though modeled on Brahms' trio, there are also hints of Tchaikovsky and Dvorák throughout the first movement as well.  The second movement, Andante, starts with solo piano for a while, with a warm, passionate line to which the clarinet, and then piano, adds to. The movement is dramatic at times, and richly so. The final movement, a quick 2/4 starts off quietly with a busy piano line and with an air of mystery in each part, but with some fantastic bursts of drama and passion, including right at the very end.

Here are some recordings of this wonderful work for you to enjoy!

Othmar Muller
Eduard Brunner
Kari Kriikku