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I can't think of any other work to have appeared on this site to feature the appearance of the humble duck call - or so joyously!

As I thought it might be, this opera is highly recommendable.

Thanks so much for that: I really appreciate the effort that people go to here to make sure we all get to hear all these unsung treats.

That would be amazing if you do manage to get round to it. I suspect it might well end up as a release from CPO, like their set of Das Lied Der Nacht, but we all know how long that can take!

I'm just wondering if anyone managed to record the Heidleberg performance of this back in the spring? And if so, might they be able to share it?

Will someone please record this and make available in the Downloads section? I have wanted to hear this piece ever since I heard about it 30 years ago!
Many thanks in anticipation.

A fascinating interview. It's particularly surprising to hear him talking about how few orchestral and chamber concerts there were in Vienna: not what one might have imagined at all. And to have memories of Mahler conducting!

As a boy in about 1971 or so I met him at a grown-ups drinks party in Edinburgh. At the time I was too absorbed in Airfix kits and Marc Bolan then to have any interest in an old Viennese composer! I also remember him being pointed out to me at the Queen's Hall in the 80s just at a time when I was getting seriously interested in late romantic music. If only I'd known then what I know now ....

This is very exciting news indeed. It's really good to see the Czech musical establishment reconnect with its musical heritage beyond the usual Smetana/Dvorak axis, particularly the rich cross fertilisation between Vienna and Prague as exemplified by Zemlinsky's tenure in the latter city. And even if the actual music of some of the composers is deemed "beyond the remit of this site", surely it is relevant to hear about them, given that they were largely all students of either Zemlinsky and Schreker and so may be of direct interest to those interested in those "approved" composers? I realise there are lots of blurred lines here – and we keep butting up against them – but one of the fascinations of 1900-1938 period rests in how multiple strands could co-exist and feed into each other.

Whatever, the promise that performances will be made available is even more welcome news. Czech Radio has already put up online a lot of very interesting archive performances of works that are otherwise not available; this latest initiative shows an equally open-minded approach to accessibility that is really praiseworthy.

Thanks very much for sharing this news, Brendan.

I did too when I first saw mention of this disc! We desperately need more of Gabriel's work on disc, following on from the disc of orchestral works released earlier this year.

Have to say, I am bowled over by the simply gorgeous second movement – that limpid string melody is particularly wonderful. Although some of the writing elsewhere drags a little too much for comfort, it's a work I've been listening to with much enjoyment over the past three weeks. Now listening to the D minor symphony on YouTube, which offers more of the kind of riches on display on Toccata's release.

I'd suggest that it's well worth checking out the string quartets (the first two in particular), the gorgeous orchestral Maeterlinck Songs and the other one-act opera, A Florentine Tragedy (not quite as powerful as Der Zwerg, being a little hampered dramatically, but a rich and expressive score from his mature middle period). And, a work that shows he was a composer who was unafraid to move beyond a late-romantic comfort zone, his final opera, Der König Kandaules (as superbly realised by Antony Beaumont) is a darkly brilliant work of the mid-1930s that sits more squarely in the (shh!) modernist soundworld of Hindemith yet retains Zemlinsky's characteristic attention to rich textures. It raises interesting questions about where he might have headed next had his life not been thrown into turmoil. But I suspect any resulting works, if they existed, would be deemed outwith the scope of this site.

Many thanks for posting those. Is there any indication about exactly which operas are to be the focus of the series. It seems a little vague from what I've seen online. In particular, would love to hear the Klenau and L Nielsen works, for example, and already know Schierbeck's Fete Galante and Børresen's The Royal Guest.

Me too.

I'm new here, so forgive me if he's not quite suitable for discussion, but I was pretty impressed by the late Israel Yinon's recording of Ben-Haim's first symphony for cpo a few years back (the second has just been released by cpo too, but I don't have it yet). But I see there's recording of his 1933 oratorio Joram on Helicon, with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Just wondering if anyone knows this and can recommend it. The blurb says it's written in the tradition from Bach>Mendelssohn>Brahms, but can if anyone can flesh that out a bit?

Many thanks

Yes, having seen that essay on Hausegger, I was a little surprised that there might be more. Unless cpo know more than we do, of course. Still, Barbarossa is a colossal great work that I'm happy to wait for on cd, though after hearing all these symphonic pieces that the Natursymphonie is his greatest work.

Aufklänge etc now advertised on Amazon (available 30 June), with a reference to a future release of Barbarossa, and the cryptic line "There is still a rich supply of mighty symphonic music to be discovered." Dare we hope for more?