Alexander Zemlinsky's Second Quartet is an extremely turbulent work. Within its single movement, one may easily recognize the outline of a four-movement quartet, with an Adagio and a Scherzo framing two complex outer movements. Each section is subdivided into several shorter parts, each with different tempi, harmonies and character. The work opens quietly with a three-note motto (D-E-G) which can be hears again and again in various forms throughout the entire piece. Eventually, the music explodes with of passion and energy, but eventually calms and turns into a tender slower episode. Then comes a frenetic, nervous episode which in turns leads to and Adagio. Eventually, the music rises to highly emotional climax and then dies back. The following section is for all intents and purposes a scherzo. The final section brings back subjects from the first and the second sections lurching from one dramatic passage to another, fully fury and violence, before softly ending in an ethereal fashion.
During his lifetime, Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942) was very highly regarded not only as a composer but also as a teacher and conductor. His works are an authentic testimony of the turbulent developments in music between 1890 and 1940. He stands between times and styles but in this intermediary position he found a rich, unmistakable, musical language. His personality and work epitomize one of the most fascinating epochs of art in Europe. Zemlinsky was born in Vienna. His musical talent became evident at an early age and he was enrolled at the Conservatory of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde when he was 13 years old. There he studied piano and composition. He was greatly influenced by Johannes Brahms, who at the time was serving as President of the Gesellschaft. By 1900, Zemlinsky was firmly established as an important, though not a leading, musical figure in Vienna. He worked both as a composer and conductor. However, though he did well, he was unable to achieve the major success he had hoped for and therefore left for Prague in 1911. In Prague, he held the important post of opera conductor of the Deutsches Landestheater until 1927. He became well-known as a perceptive interpreter of Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, and Schoenberg. In 1927, he moved to Berlin to take up a position as a conductor of a major opera house. In 1933, he returned to Vienna where he remained until 1938, before emigrating to New York.
