Not premiered until 1917, Zemlinsky’s Eine florentinische Tragödie was something of a latecomer to the fin de siècle party. Based, like Strauss’s Salome, on Wilde – in this case a fragmentary play – it is full of musical and dramatic touches reminiscent of the earlier score but is governed by a discipline and economy arguably lacking from the Strauss. The plot’s love triangle is faintly reminiscent of Puccini’s contemporaneous Il tabarro, while it shares its Renaissance Italian setting with such works as Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten.

But it’s a short piece whose cumulative power is extremely impressive, and in this 2012 recording, made live in the Royal Festival Hall, Vladimir Jurowksi and the LPO capture both its passion and its restraint well. It’s a reading of remarkable orchestral clarity and lucidity, which saves up the passion for when it’s required and paces the final minutes to properly shattering effect.

Albert Dohmen (also Simone on Riccardo Chailly’s fierier 1996 Concertgebouw recording for Decca’s Entartete Music series) remains imposing and authoritative, even if the voice is rather dry. Sergey Skorokhodov has all the notes and sings securely as Guido, his rival, but his performance is marred by heavily accented German. Heike Wessels is a gloriously voluptuous and vibrant Bianca. I wonder if she might have made more of the filler: the Six Maeterlinck Songs, composed in a style that seems to emulate late Mahler but has little of his conviction and pathos. As it is, Petra Lang (recorded a couple of years earlier) sounds rather plummy and pushed in these works.