Hanns Eisler - Vierzehn Arten den Regen zu beschreiben

These variations were written to accompany a documentary film made in 1941 by the Dutch artist Joris Ivens during Eisler's exile in America. They are based on a 12-tone row which contains an anagram of Eisler's teacher Arnold Schönberg (in German nomenclature A - Es - C - H - B - G, which translates to the notes A, E flat, C, B, B flat and G).

In this wonderfully impressionistic piece we can picture the rain beginning to fall amidst trills and tremolos, the dance of splashing droplets, sweet, simple remembrances of other rainy days, the slow streamlets of water draining away. It's up to the imagination of the listener as there are no titles to the sections. The scoring for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, violincello and piano shows the composer's exceptional talent for producing timbres.

These interpretations were recorded in Berlin and Dresden, in the years 1967 and 1987.

Hanns Eisler - Vierzehn Arten den Regen zu beschreiben
(192 kbps, front cover included)