Hanns Eisler – Orchestral Pieces – Hans E. Zimmer

The orchestral works by Hanns Eisler included in this album are all examples of what he called "applied music". Eisler first used this term in the mid-1920s to describe the links between music and other arts such as poetry, theartre and dance and, at the same time, to underscore the new functionality of music when combined with such technological media as radio, film and the gramophone, all of which were envolving at dizzying speed and making it possible to reproduce music on a massive scale. In consequence, the concert hall had lost the leading position in musical culture. Although Eisler helped to pioneer the use of music in films, stage plays and the radio as early as 1926, he never claimed that this heralded the end of music in the concert hall, only that such music would have to change by adapting itself stylistically and taking over into the concert hall forms from the world of "applied music".

 

All the works on this album illustrate the different ways in which Eisler realised his concept of a synthesis between technical and musical progress. Although their titles all appear to suggest "pure" concert music, they all started life as film or theatre music. The same is true of Eisler´s six Suites for orchestra, which were written between 1930 and 1934 and which are all based on film scores adapted for the concert hall.

Incuded works:
Kleine Sinfonie, op.29
Fünf Orchesterstücke
Drei Stücke für Orchester
Sturm-Suite für Orchester
Kammer-Symphonie, op.69

Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin
Hans E. Zimmer - conductor

Hanns Eisler – Orchestral Pieces – Hans E. Zimmer
(256 kbps, front cover included)