Hanns Eisler

[Harry]

I recently bought a CPO disc with some of his works, and found them to be to my taste, but am a novice concerning other recordings.
Can someone fill me in.

[vanessa_zang]

If you like wind music, check out how many ways Eisler can describe the rain! (Fourteen Ways to Describe the Rain)

(Paul aka SpringRite too lazy to log in as myself)

[Harry]

If you like wind music, check out how many ways Eisler can describe the rain! (Fourteen Ways to Describe the Rain)

(Paul aka SpringRite too lazy to log in as myself)

Thanks my friends, I will look into it.

[MishaK]

This reminds me that I have a recording of his "Deutsche Sinfonie - an antifascist cantata" with Lothar Zagrosek and some Leipzig orchestra from the Decca "entartete Musik" series. I'll have to give that a spin and will report.

[Harry]

This reminds me that I have a recording of his "Deutsche Sinfonie - an antifascist cantata" with Lothar Zagrosek and some Leipzig orchestra from the Decca "entartete Musik" series. I'll have to give that a spin and will report.

Thank you!

[Kullervo]

I like his score to Alain Resnais's documentary, Night and Fog, a film about the Holocaust.

[Harry]

I like his score to Alain Resnais's documentary, Night and Fog, a film about the Holocaust.

Yes I am looking into his film scores too, quite interesting.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I know that vocals isn't your thing, Harry, but I do know you make exceptions for voices of exceptional merit. One such voice is Matthias Goerne. The fact he's singing Eisler is an added bonus.




There's also this fine disc (though OOP) of piano music. Exceptionally well played - and superbly recorded! - it might be worth tracking down.

[Harry]

I know that vocals isn't your thing, Harry, but I do know you make exceptions for voices of exceptional merit. One such voice is Matthias Goerne. The fact he's singing Eisler is an added bonus.




There's also this fine disc (though OOP) of piano music. Exceptionally well played - and superbly recorded! - it might be worth tracking down.

I will on your recommendation try to find this disc.
Thanks for the effort.

[jlaurson]

Should this thread not have been titled: "Enigma Eisler"?? 

Here are my little contributions to Eisler, this week:


For WETA:

http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=536

and my first-ever article in German:

http://www.klassikinfo.de/Eisler-Ausstellung-Wien.732.0.html

[mjwal]

 I just wrote some words about Eisler on the Schoenberg vs. Webern vs. Berg thread -
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,3603.40.html
and feel impelled to add a few words about this composer, who is very near to my heart. Jens considers his national anthem for the GDR to be his best-known music; if you had lived through the late 60s early 70s in the FRG you would have sung the "Solidaritätslied" in your sleep. In certain circles it was better known than "Blowin' in the wind". The film it was written for, Kuhle Wampe, is really worth seeing - (exc.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMOZ7-SFP34.
I made the mistake on the other thread of suggesting he was a GDR citizen - but in fact he never gave up his Austrian nationality, like Brecht.
There is a wonderful resource - http://eislermusic.com/    - where Jascha Horenstein and Wolf Biermann reminisce, there is an illuminating record of the McCarthy era, and a useful discography. I especially recommend the cpo selection of orchestral pieces (a Kammersinfonie with electric keyboards in 1943!! It was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation as a kind of experimental film music...) - you will be amazed by the ironic pastiche of the last piece, a comedy overture from 1948. The Berlin Classics CDs of Kammermusik (a double CD and single CD) and especially their CD Historic Recordings, with popular songs (words by Tucholsky and Brecht among others) sung by the working-class Tauber, Ernst Busch; Die Mutter, historical recordings of the stage music for this drama by Brecht based on Gorki; a few lullabies, and above all the astounding and heart-rendingly horrific "Ein Pferd klagt an/Fallada, der du hangest" (1932) sung by Käthe Kühl, conducted by Boris Blacher. All these Berlin Classics CDs have notes in German and English and are still a snip, but who knows for how long. - Avoid the FiDi version of the Eisler Lieder on Teldec, the Goerne Hollywood Song Book  is much better, though the selection is not quite the same.
Brecht wrote a text for a Kinderhymne, a child's hymn, which is an alternative German national anthem without the hollow grandstanding of the Becher text; Eisler set this too. There is a recording of Eisler himself croaking itin private - it is unspeakably moving. I cannot offer you that, but here is a link to a delicate performance of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tWNwmbN23w
It ends with the words "And [Germany] may seem to be the most lovable [country] to us, as other peoples feel about their own" - which is of course a deliberate clarification and modification of "Deutschland über alles" (words now no longer sung, but which once had a revolutionary significance in the 19th C.); it begins "Do not spare grace or effort, passion or reason, so that a good Germany may blossom like any other good country." 

[snyprrr]

I have the 14 Ways of Describing Rain, a lovely rainy day piece for mixed ensemble. Ensemble Phorminx.

I just got his SQ, which is, mmm, kinda typical for the time. Didn't jump out.

[Mirror Image]

From what I've heard of his music, I really enjoy. There is a kind of Shostakovich sarcasm and vulgarity in his music that I find interesting. Eisler's own life was also fascinating, but I'm still a complete novice to his music and I bought three recordings on Berlin Classics, so hopefully this will change soon.

[snyprrr]

Notto hot on Eisler, but he fits the roster.

[snyprrr]

And there's no Weill Thread in the Composer Section?

[torut]

Brilliant Classics will release a 10-CD set Hanns Eisler Edition in June 2014. I don't know his music but I am interested in this. Schoenberg "described him as one of his most gifted students."

[Mandryka]

There are now two recordings of the entire Hollywood Songbook - Goerne and this new one from mezzo Valerie Eickhoff. Both are with pianist Eric Schneider. Without wishing to do A/B comparisons for the moment I can report four things about the new one - this is qualitative research, first responses, with me as the sole respondent!

1. When I first put it on I said to myself, "God, this pianist is great!" I never thought that with the recording he made with Goerne.

2. Eickhoff s voice is shrill and tiring. But she is a good interpreter.

3. The Eickhoff recording made me think for the first time that these songs form a real great modernist cycle. With Goerne I remember realising that some of it was magnificently original, especially in the second half. With Eickhoff the whole thing is astonishing.

4. It is vividly recorded.

[Mandryka]

There's also this fine disc (though OOP) of piano music. Exceptionally well played - and superbly recorded! - it might be worth tracking down.

This is Christoph Keller, it's on Spotty. The music and playing does indeed sound interesting, something for me to explore there.

[Mandryka]

Another modern Hollywood Liederbuch. There's an old one from Wolfgang Holzmair too - and a big selection from Roseitha Trexler (who sang the Schoenberg Hanging Gardens with John Tilbury) Halger Falk has a lovely timbre IMO - I know him through a CD of Rihm songs.

[Mandryka]

Another modern Hollywood Liederbuch. There's an old one from Wolfgang Holzmair too - and a big selection from Roseitha Trexler (who sang the Schoenberg Hanging Gardens with John Tilbury) Halger Falk has a lovely timbre IMO - I know him through a CD of Rihm songs.

And this is my Hollywood top pick until I change my mind. A really satisfying performance from both piano player and singer. And good sound too - dynamic range which can make you jump.