Songs With Orchestra

James Conlon already has recorded several discs of Alexander von Zemlinsky for EMI, including the Complete Choral Works. The conductor continues his passionate advocacy with this revelatory CD. With each issue in this series, Zemlinsky's true genius becomes more apparent. The heady chromatic language of these pieces is emotional and immediately appealing. Conlon brings out the individual strands of the music while simultaneously evoking a plush, warm background of sound from his orchestra. Of the soloists, Soile Isokoski emerges as the star. Her clean diction, sure dramatic sense, and complete identification with Zemlinsky's idiom mean that one becomes immersed in the heady chromaticism of both Waldgespräch and the harmonically more advanced Maiblumen blühten überall. Both inhabit the same emotional world as Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht (to accentuate the comparison, the accompaniment to Maiblumen is scored for string sextet). Although marginally less involving than Isokoski, Andreas Schmidt's baritone still has just the right tonal weight for the Zwei Gesänge. Violeta Urmana's dreamy mezzo-soprano voice luxuriates in Zemlinsky's seemingly endless flow of melody in the Maeterlinck Songs. Finally, Michael Volle relishes the Mahlerian Symphonische Gesänge. --Colin Clarke