„His praises cannot be sung highly enough"
Paul Stefan
For a talented and conscientiously trained musician like Zemlinsky, Vienna, with its rich musical life around the turn of the century, offered an abundance of opportunities but also demanded a great will to succeed. During the years between completing his studies and before leaving for Prague Zemlinsky managed to gain a lot of practical experience as a conductor and teacher and to find his own language as a composer. Nevertheless he never had a real breakthrough, partly because of his passive temperament and partly because of some unfortunate exterior circumstances. For Zemlinsky's development as a composer and conductor it was important for him to be a member of some musical associations. From 1893 to 1903 he belonged to the Tonkünstlerverein which Brahms supported; from 1903 to 1904 Zemlinsky was a member of the literary orientated Ansorge-Verein. In 1904, together with Schoenberg, he founded the „Association of Creative Musicians" which was especially concerned with fostering new music. Mahler was the honorary president but it only existed for a year.
The institution which probably had the greatest impact personally on Zemlinsky was the orchestra association Polyhymnia, which brought together various amateur orchestras in the second district of Vienna and whose artistic director he was from its foundation in 1895. Here Zemlinsky was able to perform many of his own works and also became acquainted with Arnold Schoenberg, who was to become the most important friend in his life.
Besides his commitments in the artists' associations Zemlinsky also made contacts with many of the important musicians, literati, painters and critics from the pulsating Vienna art scene, including Gustav Mahler, Frank Schreker, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Richard Heuberger, Richard Gerstl, Arthur Bodanzky, Julius Korngold, Rudolf Stefan Hoffmann and Richard Specht. Besides his separation from Alma Schindler and the encounter with Schoenberg, three events made a decisive impact on Zemlinsky's private life: in 1899 he converted to Protestantism; in 1907 he married Ida Guttmann (born in 1880), the sister of the flame of his youth Melanie, and in 1908 his daughter Johanna was born.
