Photo: Auckland Philharmonia
It's never too late to try something new.
This week Auckland Philharmonia Music Director Giordano Bellincampi will perform Austrian Alexander von Zemlinsky’s tone poem, The Mermaid, for the first time.
It's a sweeping and richly romantic work, lasting the best part of 45 minutes.
The narrative has its starting point in the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, The Little Mermaid, but might never have happened if Zemlinsky hadn't suffered a broken heart.
Living in Vienna in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Zemlinsky met and fell in love with the composer, author and socialite Alma Schindler.
Schindler had a thing for talented creative artists, and they often had a thing for her.
Zemlinsky and Schindler had a brief affair, but he lost out to a rival suitor and fellow composer, Gustav Mahler.
Giordano Bellincampi believes Zemlinsky's tone poem is his musical response to being unlucky in love.
Like the mermaid, he lost out in love, but also like the mermaid, he's transfigured - she became an angel, he created angelic music.
Bellincampi says he's looking forward to sharing The Mermaid with the orchestra and audience. If it's new to him, it will most likely be new to many of them as well.
The Auckland Philharmonia will perform the work in the Auckland Town Hall on Thursday 12 February from 7.30 pm.
Also on the bill is another late romantic masterpiece, Rachmaninov's third piano concerto with soloist Alexander Gavrylyuk.
You can also hear the whole gig live on RNZ Concert.
