Alexander von Zemlinsky, an Austrian composer of the 19th and 20th centuries, is undeservedly under-noticed in today’s cultural world. His career itself was tested by fate – he had to endure the success of his star pupil, colleague and his sister’s husband Arnold Schönberg, a refusal to work for the Berlin Opera, an unsuccessful love affair, and finally the rise of the Nazi Party, which forced him to emigrate to the USA.

The symphonic fantasy Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid) was written at the same time as Schoenberg’s symphonic poem Pelléas und Mélisande (Pelléas and Mélisande). After the reactions of the audience and the critics at the premiere of both works in 1905, Zemlinsky had to “doff his hat” to his brother-in-law’s score. Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid) is the story of an impossible, unattainable love, as experienced in real life by the composer, who was falling head over heels for his pupil Alma Schindler, the future wife of Gustav Mahler. He based his musical fairy tale on Hans Christian Andersen’s story of the mermaid, voicing his pain in the character of the mermaid and portraying his beloved as the prince.