The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Martyn Brabbins perform two works from the crucible of the Viennese fin de siècle.

Zemlinsky wrote his two completed symphonies while studying at the Conservatory. He wrote under the watchful eye of its conservative masters, and was greatly influenced by Brahms, but like many of his classmates and contemporaries, Zemlinsky peppered the otherwise bland Conservatory diet with visits to performances of new works by Verdi, Wagner and Richard Strauss. Caught between these two factions, these symphonies show him wrestling, often thrillingly, with the pedagogical parameters imposed upon him.