HannsÂ Eisler composed more than five hundred songs, and his very first extant compositions include songs with piano accompaniment. On the fourth and last volume of their selections from Eisler's songs, Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiermacher focus on his early works and bring to light an absolutely astonishing discovery: the youngÂ HannsÂ was an autodidact who had an incredible feel for the song part, and his artistic aspirations are also evident in the piano part. Eisler transcends by far the mere imitation of models. Here we encounter free-tonalÂ compositionsÂ as well as music of revue character, expressive passages as well as laconic ones. His choice of texts is likewise very broad. While Brecht became the focus in Eisler's later work, here he concentrates on poems by Eichendorff and Buchner and byÂ TraklÂ and Morgenstern. The songs set to Far Eastern poetry, in translations by Hans Bethge andÂ Klabund, are very much in keeping with their times. Eisler even set newspaper advertisements to music! Eisler composed his very first songs whileÂ as yetÂ reflecting on World War I, most of which he spent in military hospitals. The texts and the mood are correspondingly gloomy, for example, in "Tod" or "DerÂ mudeÂ Soldat." By contrast, the Songs op. 2 borrow from the style of the Viennese school led by Arnold Schoenberg, with whom Eisler studied counterpoint beginning in 1919. Broad intervals and extreme registers require the singer to give his all- something very typical of vocal works from Schoenberg's immediate circle. Holger Folk masters such difficulties with bravura and finds just the right tone for this challenging music. Steffen Schleiermacher lends the difficult, sometimes harmonically unwieldy compositional texture a transparency that conveys the character ofÂ each and everyÂ song in the most advantageous light. The magnificent conclusion of an ambitious project!

Tracklist:

Knaben Wunderhorn~MÃ¤dele, bind den GeiÃŸbock an
Dumpfe Trommel und berauschtes Gong~Der mÃ¼de Soldat
Dumpfe Trommel und berauschtes Gong~Die rote und die weiÃŸe Rose
Tod~Durch das Leben hat der Tod
Tod~Der Tod hat die Menschen mÃ¼de getrieben
Totenopfer
NachtgruÃŸ
Unter Feinden
Mausfalle~PalmstrÃ¶m hat nicht Speck im Haus
Mausfalle~Morgens kommt von Korff
Immer wieder nahst Du, Melancholie
Tanzlied der Rosetta
Am Morgen
Im FrÃ¼hling
Zwei Lieder fÃ¼r Gesang und Klavier~Bitte an den Hund
Zwei Lieder fÃ¼r Gesang und Klavier~Rondell
Wenn der Tag vorbei
Sechs Lieder op. 2~So schlafe nun, du Kleine
Sechs Lieder op. 2~Ach, es ist so dunkel
Sechs Lieder op. 2~Wenn ich erfÃ¼hre
Sechs Lieder op. 2~Erhebt euch, Freunde
Sechs Lieder op. 2~Der Mond wird oft noch
Sechs Lieder op. 2~Ich habe nie vermeint, mich selber zu kennen
Von der Langeweile
Zeitungsausschnitte~Mariechen
Zeitungsausschnitte~Kinderlied aus dem Wedding
Zeitungsausschnitte~Liebeslied eines KleinbÃ¼rger mÃ¤dchens - Heiratsannonce
Zeitungsausschnitte~Kriegslied eines Kindes
Zeitungsausschnitte~Der Sinnbegriff - Die SÃ¼nde
Zeitungsausschnitte~Der Sinnbegriff - Mutter und Vater
Zeitungsausschnitte~Der Sinnbegriff - Der Tod
Zeitungsausschnitte~Liebeslied eines GroÃŸgrund - besitzers - Heiratsannonce
Zeitungsausschnitte~Predigt des Feldkuraten
Zeitungsausschnitte~FrÃ¼hlingsrede an einen Baum im Hinterhaushof
Lustige Ecke~Noblesse oblige
Lustige Ecke~Der kleine Kohn
Knaben Wunderhorn~Was mÃ¶chtest du nicht

UPC: 760623212623
Label: Mdg
Release Date: 1.3.20
Format: CD

Eisler / Falk / Schleiermacher - Lieder 4 (CD)