HANNS EISLER (1898-1962): Ernste Gesänge for Instrumental Ensemble and Baritone, Piano Sonata, Op. 1, Lieder: Hotelzimmer 1942, Speisekammer 1942, Die Flucht, An den kleinen Radioapparat, Frühling, Die Heimkehr, Die Landscaft des Exils, Und es sind die finstern Zeiten, Über den Selbstmord, Verfehlte Liebe, Ostersonntag, Vom Sprengen des Gartens, Der Kirschdieb, Lied von der belebenden Wirkung des Geldes, Ballade vom Wasserrad, Solidaritätslied, In der Frühe.

Description: This intelligently planned release gives us early, middle and late-period Eisler in reverse order and beginning with something which will surprise those of you who think of the composer only as an agit-prop socialist: the Ernste Gesänge of 1962 are a response to the shocking revelations of Stalinist atrocities in the USSR and Eisler reverts to a powerful, direct style tinged with Mahlerian late Romanticism as he expresses his grief, outrage and anger. The sardonic wit and sarcasm of the so-called Hollywood Songbook of the 1940s is represented by 14 Lieder while the 1923 op. 1 sonata, freely atonal and brimming with ideas, complexity and energy, stands between the Lieder and two songs from incidental music for a play and one from a film of the 1930s which bring this enlightening release to an end. German-English texts. Matthias Goerne (baritone), Thomas Larcher (piano), Ensemble Resonanz.