Deutsche Sinfonie

Hanns Eisler (Composer), Lothar Zagrosek (Conductor), Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
• Conductor: Lothar Zagrosek
• Composer: Hanns Eisler
• Audio CD (February 13, 1996)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B00000428A
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,152 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful musical document of darkness,struggle & hope, April 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Deutsche Sinfonie (Audio CD)

This is the first studio recording of this important neglected work. Last year was The Eisler Centenary (1898-1998), and we found The American Symphony in New York giving the U.S premiere.Eisler's musical language knows no equal in uniting the complexities of images, of words with music. He is like the unknown Schubert of our time. And he has had vigorous challenge in Brecht who wrote the text here. This musical monument works best as a cantata than an oratorio-like symphonie. Eisler's musical phrases work best with short terse declamations and dark lyrical lines. And here we have a multi-movement work with shifting emphasis between solo moments,choral declamation to pure instrumental interludes. One movement entitled "Concentration Camp" forshadowed the darkest pages of European history. Eisler's music moves slowly,lugubriously not pleased with the state of the world the music waits for violence or struggle here with not quite triumphant fragments of the song "The International". Zagrosek with clean precision unites the formidable forces, with clear impassioned solo work and seemless orchestral playing.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A monumental work by a miniaturist, May 3, 2000

By 

Andrew G. Lang (Cleveland, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Deutsche Sinfonie (Audio CD)

German composer Hanns Eisler is sometimes dismissed by his critics as a "miniaturist"--a gifted composer of songs, film scores, stage music and tightly-structured chamber pieces who was incapable of larger-scale orchestral works. This was partly the result of Eisler's theory of "applied music"--music should "climb down from its lofty heights" and take part in life's struggles. For Eisler, that meant music for the radical worker's movement in Europe before the Second World War, and particularly music for the new technologies of radio, sound film and recording. Both content and form dictated Eisler's style, which tended to produce concentrated bursts of meaning through carefully constructed forms.

The "German Symphony" on this album--recorded by the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus--shows that Eisler could indeed write for large musical forces. But the symphony's 11 movements are more of a series of cantatas than an integrated choral symphony. Still, the effect is impressive, and the opening Praeludium is one of the finest products of Eisler's generation of exiles from Nazi-dominated Europe. It is a powerful cry of protest, to words by Bertolt Brecht, against the spiritual and physical destruction of their German homeland.

5.0 out of 5 stars Eisler, November 27, 2011

By 

Hamel (France) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Deutsche Sinfonie (Audio CD)

Eisler a réalisé quelques compositions qui méritent le détour, en particulier le Hollywood Songbook (version par Goerne magnifique) et cette symphonie, ici, dans une interprétation peut-être idéale