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Alexander Zemlinsky (1872-1942)
composer & Alma´s composition tutor and lover
The Austrian composer, who in recent years has come back into
fashion, was Alma Schindler´s composition tutor from 1897
onwards. Under his guidance, the musically gifted young woman
composed a whole number of songs after poems by Rilke, Heine
and others. Zemlinsky was a teacher without parallel; he taught
Arnold Schönberg too, with whom he was also friends. After
Gustav Klimt had stolen a first kiss from Alma in Genua, Zemlinsky
became his successor in Alma´s heart. She allowed him
to kiss and caress her, permitting him every intimacy but the
ultimate, thereby almost driving him to madness. For his part,
he knew how to arose Alma´s wakening sexuality with a
passion which allowed her never to forget his »virtuoso
hands«. The relationship was an emotional roller-coaster,
and Alma tortured Zemlinsky for two years until, in 1902, she
decided against him and in favour of marriage to Gustav Mahler,
who was twenty years her senior.
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Alexander
Zemlinsky |
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| Zemlinsky's song Symphony "Lyric Suite " is a reflection on the unfortunate love for Alma. Zemlinsky was inspired to it by Gustav Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde", but refused letting his work premiered together with Mahler's unfinished 10th Symphony which was Mahler's reaction to Alma's love affair with the architect Walter Gropius. |
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