Hanns Eisler: Chamber Music

On this CD:

1. Scherzo for string trio
Composed by Hanns Eisler

2. Palmström, Op 5, parody for vocal soloist, flute (or piccolo)
Composed by Hanns Eisler
Performed by Wolfgang Bernhardt, Friedrich-Carl Erben, Oskar Michallik, Arnim Orlamunde, Roswitha Trexler, Wilfried Winkelmann
Conducted by Hans-Jurgen Wenzel

3. Duo for violin & cello, Op 7
Composed by Hanns Eisler
Performed by Clemens Dillner, Rudolf Ulbrich

4. Zeitungsausschnitte, for voice and piano, Op 11
Composed by Hanns Eisler
Performed by Walter Olbertz, Roswitha Trexler

5. Prelude and Fugue on the Name of BACH for string trio, Op 46
Composed by Hanns Eisler
Performed by Clemens Dillner, Rudolf Ulbrich, Joachim Zindler

6. Sonata for flute, oboe & harp, Op 49
Composed by Hanns Eisler
Performed by Kurt Mahn, Johannes Walter, Jutta Zoff

7. Sonata for violin & piano ("Reisesonate")
Composed by Hanns Eisler
Performed by Jutta Czapski, Gustav Schmahl

8. Nonet for winds & strings No 1
Composed by Hanns Eisler
Performed by Berlin State Opera Chamber Music Association
Conducted by Friedrich-Carl Erben

9. Septet No 2 for flute (& piccolo), clarinet, bassoon & string quartet
Composed by Hanns Eisler
Performed by Friedrich-Carl Erben, Manfred Friedrich, Ralf-Rainer Haase, Herbert Heilmann, Hans Himmler, Arnim Orlamunde, Karl-Heinz Schroter

Tracks:

The Winter's Tale: Fennimores Lied
The Winter's Tale: Casars Tod
The Winter's Tale: Die Moritat Von Mackie Messer
The Winter's Tale: Salomon - Song
The Winter's Tale: Die Ballade Von Der Sexuallen Horigkeit
The Winter's Tale: Zu Potsdam Unter Den Eichen
The Winter's Tale: Nannas Lied
The Winter's Tale: Lied Des Lotterieagenten
The Winter's Tale: Alabama-Song
The Winter's Tale: Denn Wie Man Sich Bettet
The Winter's Tale: Je Ne T'Aime Pas
The Winter's Tale: I'm A Stranger Here Myself
The Winter's Tale: Westwind
The Winter's Tale: Speak Low

Customer Reviews:

Affecting but oversold.......2006-11-28

Prompted by both friends and reviewers, I've tried to learn to like Ute Lemper's Weill, but after valiant efforts, I must say I don't. She has great facility, it's true, in several languages, and she knows the timbre of a song and works hard to put it across. For me, however, she works too hard, whether it's the distracting breathiness of "je ne t'aime pas" or the "street kid" Berlin Rrrs in "Mackie Messer" or the aggressive Noo Yorking in "I'm a Stranger Here Myself", I end up feeling that I'm having the song pushed at me rather than allowed to flower for itself. In a cabaret setting they might (maybe) work better, but on disk, I don't find her vocally strong enough to carry the music alone. Too much wobble in the voice and not always either the breath or the pitch to make the longer phrases work. The comparison with Theresa Stratas in "Je ne t'aime pas" (or even better, the terrifying German version "Wie Lange Noch") is instructive. Lemper is small, touching, you can feel why someone would have left her, she oozes powdery pathos over a nightclub table. Stratas, Piaf-like, is riven by love and music alike and takes the song's lines where they naturally lead. For me, it's no contest.

Great vocalist in three languages. Very best Weill interpreter.......2005-10-01

`Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill, Volumes 1 and 2' released in 1988 and 1993, plus the third album of Weill's two most important song cycles in German, `The Seven Deadly Sins' (`Die sieben Todsunden') and `Mahagonny Songspiel' released in 1990 unequivocally established Ms. Lemper as the leading Kurt Weill interpreter since Lotte Lenya, Weill's wife and the singer for whom many of his vocal pieces were written. These three disks, sample pieces from most major Weill works written in German, including his most famous musical play, `The Threepenny Opera' (`Die Dreigroschenoper').

The first disc has fourteen tracks with three from `Der Silbersee' with lyrics by Kaiser, three from `Die Dreigroschenoper' with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, two from `Berliner Requiem' with lyrics by Brecht, two from `Mahagonny' with lyrics by Mahagonny, `Je ne t'aime pas with French lyrics by Magre, and three from `One Touch of Venus' with English lyrics by S.J. Perelman and Ogden Nash.

The middle disc includes both works performed in their original German. After having listened to `The Seven Deadly Sins' done by several different artists, and having just reviewed a CD on which Anne Sofie von Otter does this work, I discover for the first time that the piece was written in two versions, one for a low voice and one for a high voice. Von Otter does the version for high voice and Lemper does the version for low voice that, I suspect, is the way it was originally performed by Fraulein Lenya. One service done by comparing Lemper and von Otter's performance is to see how much closer Lemper is to the original spirit of the work than is von Otter. Weill's venue was not the opera stages of Berlin or Vienna, it was the popular stage, actually much closer to what we see in the movie `Cabaret' than what we see in `Amadeus'. I enjoy von Otter's rendition, but Lemper stirs my heart where von Otter does not. Lemper also seems to have the benefit of a much better cast of supporting voices on the two works on Volume 1.

All albums are done with the backing of the RIAS Berlin Sinfonietta, conducted by John Mauceri who seems to get just the right tone of sleaze out of his ensemble to match the tone of the composition and lyrics by Weill and his various librettists, especially Berthold Brecht.

Volume 2 showcases Lemper's ability to sing with equal facility and understanding in German (Songs from `Happy End'), French (Songs from `Marie Galante'), and English (Songs from `Lady in the Dark'). While my understanding of French is far weaker than my understanding of the German and the English, when I compare Ms. Lemper's French interpretations with the French of Ms. Von Otter, I definitely prefer Lemper's treatment. She may not quite match Edith Piaf, but I feel she has a cachet all her own.

Lemper is a vocalist in that great European femme fatale tradition of Lenya, Piaf, and Dietrich and certainly to my lights the leading interpreter today of Weill's songs plus works by other European composers for the musical and cabaret (See her album `City of Strangers'). Compared to even some of the greatest contemporary American female vocalists on the stage such as Streisand and Minelli, both Yanks have their strength, but they can't or don't try to achieve the same depth of feeling behind the European `Weltschmertz' you hear from Lemper and her forerunners. The closest may be Minelli's performance as Sally Bowles in `Cabaret', but even there, she can't seem to hide her American innocence.

Of the three albums, the first of the three, `Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill' may be the best introduction, as it includes two of Weill's best English songs, `I'm a Stranger Here Myself' and `Speak Low'. The third, `Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill Vol. 2' has two of Weill's most famous German songs outside of `Die Dreigroschenoper', `Bilbao-Song' and `Surabaya-Johnny'.

If you encounter this review and have never heard Ute Lemper, I strongly urge you to try one of these albums. If the German and French turns you off, try Lemper's recent album, `Punishing Kiss'.

Very highly recommended.

Ute dramatically renders the best of Weill and Brecht!.......2004-09-25

This album is full of many highlights, Zu Potsdam, Die Sexuelle Hoerigkeit, Wenn Die Man Sich Bettet, etc. From beginning to end it is a triumph and masterpiece by the international singing sensation Ute Lemper.

Voice non par excellence.......2004-03-18

It seems that everywhere you turn there is someone "with a unique voice." Usually we nod and upon hearing the voice in question shake our heads and head on to the next great talent. But the trite saying is, for this case, proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

These interpretations are just incredible, ultra-clear, and just the way one would imagine these songs presented. Several of the selections are more suited to a smoky speakeasy rather than the stage which is just fine by me. Lemper runs the gamut from the catty growl to the ultra-lush to the quiet melancholy to the joyous Bronx of "I'm Just a Stranger Here Myself." The three languages presented absolutely no problems: The German was sufficiently guttural, the French erotic and the English - well, as only English can sound.

A near perfect recording by a near perfect artist.

Ute! She knows how to trill me!.......2003-11-17

I'd never heard of Ute Lemper until I received a brochure announcing her March concert at the Cleveland Museum of Art. I fell for her picture. I saw a women who oozed style, class, and sensuality; she had to be a great singer, right? So I purchased the "Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill" CD, and fired it up as soon as UPS delivered. I didn't know what to think. The music was strange, the singing was stranger. Foreign. Had I wasted my money? Did I fall for slick marketing and a pretty face? I listened again...and again...and again... Ute's way of singing these haunting, powerful melodies-her key changes, her haughtiness, her sarcasm, her way of emphasizing key words and phrases, her trills (Oh, those trills)-grabbed me by the throat and shook me in a way that I thoroughly enjoyed. I can't get the songs out of my head. I find myself singing the last two lines of "Caesar's Tod" and "Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen" and the chorus of "Nanna's Lied" at work, auf Deutsche. These songs don't let go! I can't wait 'til March.

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Inventions

Manufacturer: Virgin Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Duets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Improvisation | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Inventions | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Folk | Styles | Music

Face à face: Duos for Violin & Cello
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Hammerklavier; Pathétique; Op. 49, No. 1
Brahms: Piano Trios
Ravel: Sonatas & Trio
Monteverdi: Vespers

ASIN: B0009XCD9O
Release Date: 2006-10-31

Tracks:

Invention No.2 In F Major BWV 779
Aria
Prelude In D Major BWV 850
Menuet
Gavotte
Gigue
Invention No.13 In A Minor BWV 784
Tempo Di Minuetto
Allegretto Vivace
Masques I (Modere)
Allegro Ironico
Allegretto
Moderato
Choral: Andante
Allegretto
Con Moto
Vivace
Masques II
Allegro Con Fuoco
Lento (Inacheve)
Allegretto
Adagio
Poco Allegro
Marche Miniature Viennoise (Tempo Di Marcia)

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Hanns Eisler: Orchesterwerke

Manufacturer: Capriccio
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000001WRA
Release Date: 1996-11-19

Tracks:

Kleine Sinfonie, Op 29: Thema mit Variationen
Kleine Sinfonie, Op 29: Allegro assai - Sostenuto
Kleine Sinfonie, Op 29: Invention
Kleine Sinfonie, Op 29: Allegro
Funf Orchesterstucke: Andante
Funf Orchesterstucke: Allegro
Funf Orchesterstucke: Kleine Passecaglia
Funf Orchesterstucke: Presto
Funf Orchesterstucke: Finale - Improvisation
Drei Stucke fur Orchester: Andante con motto
Drei Stucke fur Orchester: Molto allegro
Drei Stucke fur Orchester: Thema mit Variatonen ('Der lange Marsch')
Sturm Suite fur Orchester: 'Sturm' - Allegro
Sturm Suite fur Orchester: Pantomime, Allegro spirito
Sturm Suite fur Orchester: Bequem
Sturm Suite fur Orchester: Poco larghetto
Sturm Suite fur Orchester: (ohne Bezeichnung - Without Indication)
Sturm Suite fur Orchester: Allegro agitato
Sturm Suite fur Orchester: Lento
Sturm Suite fur Orchester: Destintato
Kammer-Symphonie, Op. 69: Invention
Kammer-Symphonie, Op. 69: Choral
Kammer-Symphonie, Op. 69: Scherzo
Kammer-Symphonie, Op. 69: Etude
Kammer-Symphonie, Op. 69: Finale

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Hanns Eisler: Historic Recordings

Manufacturer: Berlin Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Hanns Eisler: Vocal Symphonic Music
Hanns Eisler: Works for Orchestra, Vol. 1
Deutsche Sinfonie, Op. 50 (German Symphony)
Roaring Eisler
Eisler: The Hollywood Songbook

ASIN: B0000035V8
Release Date: 1996-10-15

Tracks:

I. Lieder Und Balladen: 1. Ballade Vom Nigger Jim Op.18/6
I. Lieder Und Balladen: 2. Ballade Von Den Baumwollpfluckern Op.22/1
I. Lieder Und Balladen: 3. Ballade Von Der Wohltatigkeit Op.22/2
I. Lieder Und Balladen: 4. Lied Der Bergarbeiter Op.23/3
I. Lieder Und Balladen: 5. Ballade Von Den Sackeshcmeissern Op.22/4
I. Lieder Und Balladen: 6. Solidaritatslied Op.27/1
I. Lieder Und Balladen: 7. Stempellied, Lied Der Arbeitslosen Op.28/6
II. Die Mutter Op.25: 1. Wie Die Krahe - Carola Braunbock/Ernst Busch
II. Die Mutter Op.25: 2. Das Lied Von Der Suppe - Edith Weiss
II. Die Mutter Op.25: 3. Der Zerissene Rock
II. Die Mutter Op.25: 4. Bericht Vom 1. Mai - Helene Weigel/Carola Braubock/Ernst Busch/Ernst Kahler/Kurt Sperling/Gerd Schafer/Friedrich Gnass...
II. Die Mutter Op.25: 5. Lob Des Kommunismus - Helene Weigel
II. Die Mutter Op.25: 6. Lob Des Lernens
II. Die Mutter Op.25: 7. Lob Eines Revolutionars
II. Die Mutter Op.25: 8. Im Gefangnis Zu Singen
II. Die Mutter Op.25: 9. Lob Der Wlassowas - Ernst Kahler
II. Die Mutter Op.25: 10. Lob Der Dritten Sache - Helene Weigel
II. Die Mutter Op.25: 11. Grabrede Uber Einen Genossen, Der An Die Wand Gestellt Wurde
II. Die Mutter Op.25: 12. Steh Auf
II. Die Mutter Op.25: 13. Lob Der Dialektik
III. O Fallada, Da Du Hangest: Ein Pferd Klagt An - Kate Kuhl
IV. Vier Wiegenlieder Op.33: 1. Als Ich Dich In Meinem Leib Trug - Kate Kuhl/Ernst Busch
IV. Vier Wiegenlieder Op.33: 2. Als Ich Dich Gebar - Kate Kuhl/Ernst Busch
IV. Vier Wiegenlieder Op.33: 3. Ich Habe Dich Ausgetragen - Kate Kuhl/Ernst Busch
IV. Vier Wiegenlieder Op.33: 4. Mein Sohn, Was Immer Auch - Kate Kuhl/Ernst Busch

Hanns Eisler: Variations, Op. 70 / Divertimento for Wind Quintet, Op. 4 / Arnold Schoenberg: Wind Quintet, Op. 26

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SCHOENBERG'S WIND QUINTET!!

Hanns Eisler: Variations, Op. 70 / Divertimento for Wind Quintet, Op. 4 / Arnold Schoenberg: Wind Quintet, Op. 26
Hanns Eisler , Arnold Schoenberg , Chamber Music Association of the German State Opera - Berlin , and Danzi Wind Quintet - Berlin
Manufacturer: Berlin Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quintets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
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Arnold Schoenberg: Serenade/Five Pieces For Orchestra
Arnold Schoenberg: Suite, Op. 29, for 2 Clarinets, Bass Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello & Piano / Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (Sextet for 2 Violins, 2 Violas & 2 Celli) - Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Boulez
Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No1; Die Jacobsleiter
Schoenberg: Concerto for String Quartet & Orchestra; Lied der Waldtaube; The Book of the Hanging Gardens
Schoenberg - Die Glückliche Hand · Variations for Orchestra, Op.31 · Verklärte Nacht / Nimsgern · BBC Orch. · NY Phil. · Boulez

ASIN: B000007NEX
Release Date: 1998-06-16

Tracks:

Vierzehn Arten Den Regen Zu Beschreiben, Op. 70 Var
Divertimento, Op.4
Divertimento, Op.4
Quintet for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoo: Schwungvoll
Quintet for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoo: Anmutig
Quintet for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoo: Etwas Langsam, ...
Quintet for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoo: Rondo

Customer Reviews:

SCHOENBERG'S WIND QUINTET!!.......2005-02-01

The real star here is Schoenberg's Wind Quintet: a 12-tone, classically balanced piece, it's outstanding--especially the langsam/adagio movement: it does something to the electrochemical activity of the brain: relaxes it, while stimulating the Idea. Wonderful!

Hanns Eisler: Works for Orchestra, Vol. 1

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Music for the masses--and a surprising twist

Hanns Eisler: Works for Orchestra, Vol. 1

Manufacturer: Berlin Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
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Hanns Eisler: Works For Orchestra II
Hanns Eisler: Vocal Symphonic Music
Hanns Eisler: Historic Recordings
Hanns Eisler: Chamber Music

ASIN: B0000035V6
Release Date: 1996-06-18

Customer Reviews:

Music for the masses--and a surprising twist.......2002-09-15

Recorded in 1970s East Germany by the famed Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, this sampling of Hanns Eisler's short chamber works (four suites based on the scores for early sound films and a highly-compressed "Chamber Symphony" composed in the 1940s) showcases Eisler's lifelong quest for "communicative" music oriented towards social reality.

The four suites are all strictly tonal, and echo Eisler's work of the same period with Bertolt Brecht's radical political theater. They include music for the leftist antiwar movie "No Man's Land"--a film that so enraged the Nazis they tracked down and destroyed every copy.

But the Chamber Symphony is a surprising return to the "modern" twelve-tone style of his teacher, Arnold Schoenberg. Composed in the early 1940s (during Eisler's exile in the U.S.) as film music for a documentary on the Arctic ice sheet, it was an experiment in applying the twelve-tone method to film in a way that would engage an ordinary audience. The innovative use of electronic instruments with a small chamber ensemble effectively communicates both the intense cold portrayed in the documentary and the glacially slow but powerful movement of the Arctic ice mass. But the music, while pictorial, also has a connection with the movement of historical forces--as one would expect from a politically-engaged composer like Eisler. According to Eisler scholar Günter Mayer (in his notes for the Berlin Classics CD of this music), "whilst working on the final version ... he had followed reports on the radio about the invasion of France and Paris by the fascist troops (summer 1940). In consequence, the sharp contrasts between assaultingly shrill and lyrically tender sounds stand for his experience of the brutality of fascism and the barbaric destruction of human relationships."

Tracks:

Die V (Libretto: Braunfels After Aristophanes): Vorspiel - Prolog
Between Two Worlds: The World At War - The Next World
Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Libretto: Kien): Wer da? Halt! Steh! - Ist's wahr, das es Landschaften gibt - Komm fort von hier - Schau, die Wolken
Das Wunder der Heliane (Libretto: Muller after Kaltneker): Act 2, Scene 3: Ich ging zu ihm
Flammen (Libretto: Benes, Brod): Scene 8: Introduzione - Karnevalsnacht
Rondeau: `Rue du Rocher' (excerpt) - Berthold Goldschmidt
Die Gezeichneten (Libretto: Schreker): Act 3, Scene 15: Maskenzug - Was fliehst du vor mir?
Deutsche Sinfonie, Op. 50: Prdium
Der gewaltige Hahnrei: Act Two: Zwischenspiel - Du bist so blas wie ein Licht bei Tage!
String Quartet No. 2 - From The Monkey Mountains - III: Largo e misterioso - The Moon And I
Johnny Spielt Auf (Libretto: Krenek): Ob er kommt

Description

CD Video boxed set. Londn Rec. CD sample of wks by compose rs banned by Nazi regime. 40 min. vid. documentary of how & why these composers were labelled degenerate by Nazis. Never-before-seen cover art by Art Spiegelman (Maus).

Customer Reviews:

Regarding study of music banned by 3rd Reich.......2004-12-09

I know Michael Haas, executive producer. He has made a total commitment to locating and recording work of musicians whose work was banned by the Hitler regime because composers, etc. were even suspected to be Jewish, gay, gypsy, etc. One atheist or agnostic composer was sent to concentration camp because his father had been a Jew in the past.

This is needed to give a picture of the survival of music by talented people under duress.

Adorno, Eisler: Works For String Quartet

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Excellent work
Dude! B*I*T*C*H*EN Album!!!!!

Adorno, Eisler: Works For String Quartet

Manufacturer: Cpo Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Trios | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

The Films of Kenneth Anger, Vol. 1

ASIN: B000001S00
Release Date: 1996-12-17

Tracks:

Str Qt 1938 Op.75: Var
Str Qt 1938 Op.75: Finale
Praludium Und Fuge Uber B-A-C-H, Op.46: Praludium
Praludium Und Fuge Uber B-A-C-H, Op.46: Fuge
Six Studies: Sehr Langsam, Vertraumt
Six Studies: Nicht Zu Langsam, Doch Schleppend Im Ausdruck
Six Studies: Schwer Und Dumpf
Six Studies: Sehr Heftig
Six Studies: Langsam
Six Studies: Langsam
Str Qt 1921: Massig
Str Qt 1921: Sehr Langsam
Str Qt 1921: Ausserst Rasch
Str Qt 1921: Ruhig
Two Pieces Op.2: Bewegt
Two Pieces Op.2: Var

Customer Reviews:

Excellent work.......2006-09-29

This album is really good, but i think it would work better for you if you had at leats a minimal idea who Adorno was. What i mean is, off course you can enjoy the music without any extra info, but knowing that Adorno was a pupil of Alban Berg, and the fact that he was into the Schoenberg musical composing school helps you a lot to understand this work. Very interesting and original dodecaphonic music.

Dude! B*I*T*C*H*EN Album!!!!!.......2004-03-04

Gotta hear it. Get on limewire/Kazaa/Gnutella/whatever! It's time to fire it up--this album will blow you away!!! Made me want to karate chop something, all crazy like. Adorno is the man, and he'll especially knock out all the marxists in the house--THIS GUY ROCKS THE HOUSE.
In short,
Get up, go out, and buy it. KARATE-CHOP!

Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Hanns Eisler: String Quartets

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Degenerate Music

Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Hanns Eisler: String Quartets

Manufacturer: Nimbus Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Rawsthorne: String Quartets

ASIN: B0001KJG1I
Release Date: 2004-07-06

Tracks:

I. Langsam - Sehr Lebhaft
II. Con Sordino
III.
I. Variationen
II. Finale: Allegretto Con Spirito
I. Langsam - Ausserst Lebhaft Und Sehr Energisch
II. Andantino - Sehr Ausdruckvoll
III. Presto

Customer Reviews:

Degenerate Music.......2005-03-19

Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Hanns Eisler are two composers more talked about than actually represented in the music world. Both men, when mentioned at all, are known for their courageous political stand against Fascism, rather than the music they created. Eisler's primary musical notariety was achieved by succeeding Kurt Weill as Bertold Brecht's musical collaborator. Hartmann was better known in his life as the post-war champion of a new music revival in Germany than for his own work. Unlike most other German musical opponents of the Nazi regime, Hartmann did not emmigrate and criticize events in his country from a safe distance. Rather he stayed and in his own fashion actively protested the fascism and anti-Semitism he saw daily in his country. He even lived within miles of the Dachau prison camp and was rather vocal in his criticism of the activities going on there. Eisler, as a Jew and a Marxist, was doubly suspect in Germany and quite honestly was lucky just to be deported from the country. He settled in the US until the 1950s, when his Mazrxist leanings attracted the attention of America's own fascist, Joseph McCarthy and he was deported back to East Germany. There Eisler became instrumental in a revival of German cultural life, though his Expressionist musical aesthetic did not endear him to the Stalinist East German government. Hartmann too was instrumental in the revival of his country's cultural life and served as a champion of younger serialist composers such as Nono and Stockhausen. In return for his kindness he was ignored and pronounced an irrelevant composer by that generation and his works were eclipsed.

All of this makes for dramatic backstory, but the real value of a composer is the music that is left behind. Judging by the three works on this CD, both men produced some very powerful music, though not equally so. The Eisler quartet is a solid work, written in an expressionist idiom that recalls the quartet music of Alban Berg. The work is twelve-tone in concept and seems tightly argued. Cast in two movements, it ommits the traditional sonata form and it's inherent "drama" which further align it with Berg's Lyric Suite. For anyone whose knowlege of Eisler rests on his political and "agitprop" songs will be quite surprised at this almost" orthodox" Viennese serial piece. But ultimately the work is forgettable, a minor work for the composer, whose most important pieces are smaller and stradle the line between popular and high art in the manner of early Weill.

The Hartmann quartets are a different story. Both works are seminal pieces in the composer's output. The First quartet was produced in the first year of the Nazi regime and is infused with the angst and defiance that characterized the composer's anti-fascist attitude. It is also the first work that Hartmann gave an opus number and thus can be considered his first mature score. It never quite rises above the evident influences in the work, particularly the Berg Lyric Suite and the Bartok String Quartets. The idiom is dissonant but tonal in the manner of the Bartok Third and Fourth quartet. Hartmann's rhythms and melodic inflections also show a great debt to Bartok, and in the slow movement Kodaly. Still, the work is fresh, shows signs of Hartmann's mature voice.

The Second Quartet is the masterpiece on this recording. Written in the first years after the fall of the Third Reich, the piece is deeply felt, alternating between the Elegaic (Hartmann had witnessed the liberation of Dachau and saw first hand the state of the victims of Hitler) and the defiant. The influence of Bartok may still be detected if you care to search for it (and it's inevitable that critics will bring that up, since Bartok always comes up when discussing 20th century string quartets) but it is subsumed in Hartmann's own language, which also gives nods to Schonberg, Berg, and even Hindemidth, along with a deep understanding of the German Romantic tradition. The language is chromatic, but not serial or atonal at all, and the impact of the work is powerful. It stands along with Hartmann's larger symphonic works as an eloquent testimony to humanism in the face of monsterous evil.

The performances by the Vogler Quartet are excellent. The Hartmann has one disc of recorded competition but the Eisler is currently represented only by this disc. The sonics are excellent and the disc is accompanied by an unusually detailed and informative note. As an aside, this is the first Nimbus disc I've seen in several years and I had thought the company, which was among my favorite classical labels in the late 80s and early 90s, had gone belly up. I am very happy to see them come back from the brink of ruin. Nimbus has always shown a willingness to record excellent ensembles doing out of the way repertoire in the best possible sonic environment. I'm hoping that this disc and others help bring renewed vigor to a label that has always stood for the highest quality in a wide variety of musical styles.

A Christmas Carol/Mr. Pickwick's Christmas

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A Gem
good for the holidays
After years of waiting, this finally gets released on an American CD

A Christmas Carol/Mr. Pickwick's Christmas
Charles Dickens , Hanns Eisler , Victor Young , Ronald Colman , and Charles Laughton
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Now Is the Caroling Season

ASIN: B000B8I8DW
Release Date: 2005-10-25

Tracks:

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Victor Young
Quickly I Made Myself Ready For Bed - Victor Young
There At My Bedside - Victor Young
Wake Up, Man! - Victor Young
And Looking Up, I Beheld - Victor Young
I Have The Highest Pleasure (The Pickwickians Set Off To Visit Mr. Wardle) - Hanns Eisler
But If They Were Cheerful And Happy Outside The House (At The Farm) - Hanns Eisler
We're All Ready, I Believe (The Dance) - Hanns Eisler

Customer Reviews:

A Gem.......2006-04-04

I discovered this CD last Christmas and have added it to my Christmas favorites. The Colman 'A Christmas Carol' full-cast radio play is much better than either Laurence Olivier's or Orson Welles'. Furthermore, though it is a monologue, I think the Laughton 'Mr. Pickwick's Christmas' a greater artistic work than the Colman 'A Christmas Carol'. No one could have read this story better than Laughton, one of the 20th-century's greatest actors.

Last year I gave a copy of this CD to a friend who is an old-movie buff, and she was delighted. I shall do likewise next Christmas as no classic movie lover could resist these performances.

good for the holidays.......2006-02-21

Loved these storries, especially Mr Picwicks Christmas, beautiful old english storry. loved it

After years of waiting, this finally gets released on an American CD.......2005-12-27

Lately, Deutsche Grammophon has been releasing on CD some of the old American Decca mono recordings of the 1940's and '50's. While the original 78-RPM Broadway cast albums of "Oklahoma!", "Carousel", "The King and I" and "Annie Get Your Gun" found their way to CD years ago, some of these Decca recordings have inexplicably been ignored by American CD labels, including Decca itself, and now DGG has taken up the slack and is doing a splendid job.

Their latest is not a classical or popular music release. It is a spoken word album - a very overdue American release of two Charles Dickens classics, "A Christmas Carol" and "Mr. Pickwick's Christmas". Both were previously available on an Australian CD which was never released in the U.S. Each Dickens tale was originally released by American Decca as a single item on 78 RPM before the age of LP's. "Carol" was recorded in October 1941, and released in November of that year, a sobering thought considering the fact that Pearl Harbor was soon to be attacked, ushering the United States into World War II. "Pickwick" followed three years later, in November of 1944. Both were later included on a single 33 1/3 RPM LP, one of the most popular Decca albums ever made, selling well into the late 1960's. The LP version of "A Christmas Carol", however, omitted two characters (the charity collectors) heard in the 78 RPM version, and that moment has not been restored on this CD. (Ferdinand Munier, who played one of them, is erroneously credited as appearing on this album. He does not.) The sound is quite good, especially for recordings made before the age of real hi-fi, though, of course, it is not stereo.

Both stories are beautifully done. In "A Christmas Carol", renowned film actor Ronald Colman stars as Ebenezer Scrooge, and while he would have seemed miscast if he had ever done a film version of the story, he is quite excellent on records, his beautiful voice not only acting the role of Scrooge, but, in a very imaginative touch, narrating the story to the listener in character, as if Scrooge were reminiscing about his misspent life. He makes no attempt to sound "old", but is nonetheless completely convincing - better than Laurence Olivier is in *his* recorded version (and I, an Olivier fan, once never imagined I'd say that).

A further testament to the excellence of this production is that, although it is only twenty minutes or so long, each actor convinces completely in his role, and the story never seems rushed, because director George Wells has known exactly how to edit it. The supporting cast includes few familiar names, although all were noted screen character actors of the period; the most familiar names are Hans Conried (Captain Hook in Disney's animated "Peter Pan") as the Ghost of Christmas Past, and Gale Gordon ("The Lucy Show"'s Mr. Mooney) as a *speaking* Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

This "Carol" certainly won't replace Alastair Sim's 1951 film, but it will certainly do on records. (I have not heard Patrick Stewart's one-man version).

The second selection on this CD is a tour-de-force for Dickens enthusiasts and fans of virtuoso acting. It is Charles Laughton doing a one-man reading of the Christmas chapter from "The Pickwick Papers". Unlike "A Christmas Carol", this selection is not really adapted, just abridged. It is Dickens' words all the way through, with musical accompaniment, and no one has ever read Dickens better than Charles Laughton, one of the greatest actors of the twentieth century. Dickens is not boring in his hands. Laughton is delightful as he supplies all the voices, male and female, of the many characters.

Those who like their CD's to play 70 minutes or more may be disappointed with this one; it plays for only 39 minutes. But it is undoubtedly a very worthwhile recording, and it ought to have the same success on CD that it had on LP and 78 RPM years ago.

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