It would be worth striving towards a style that can combine the highest level of craftsmanship, originality, and high quality with the greatest popularity and folksiness.' – Hanns Eisler. This latest release in Capriccio‘s Hanns Eisler Edition contains songs and chansons from all periods of Eisler’s creative life. It also contains some of the fascinating orchestral suites that he had mostly assembled as adaptations of film scores from the 1930s. Notably, the programme contains the world premiere recording of his incidental music for Die letzte Nacht – the epilogue to Karl Kraus‘ monumental, satirical work The Last Days of Mankind. The mastermind behind this project was the great composer, conductor, and chansonnier HK Gruber, arguably one of the greatest authorities on Eisler.

Kammersymphonie presents a compelling journey through the fractured soundscape of early 20th-century Europe, brought to life by the acclaimed ensemble Fin du Temps. This release brings together three landmark chamber works by Arnold Schoenberg, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Hindemith, composers who each responded in radically different ways to a period of intense artistic, political, and social upheaval. At the heart of the programme lies Schoenberg's Kammersymphonie, Op. 9, heard here in Anton Webern's refined chamber arrangement-a masterpiece that condenses symphonic thinking into a single, highly concentrated movement and marks a decisive step toward musical modernism. Eisler's Vierzehn Arten den Regen zu beschreiben, Op. 70, conceived originally for experimental cinema, offers fourteen sharply etched miniatures of striking expressive power, balancing lyricism, irony, and political awareness. Completing the disc, Hindemith's Quartet for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano reveals a contrasting aesthetic: rigorously constructed, communicative, and rooted in an expanded sense of tonality. Recorded at the Auditorio Manuel de Falla in Granada, this album combines intellectual depth with exceptional sonic clarity and interpretative authority. Kammersymphonie is an essential release for listeners interested in modern chamber music, historical context, and performances of the highest artistic calibre.

In 1938, at the Reichsmusiktage in Düsseldorf, the Nazi regime opened an exhibition around music with the theme: 'Entartete Musik'. They collected examples of what they considered degenerate music. Gustav Mahler, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Mischa Spoliansky; these were just a few names on the long list of depraved composers. On this album, this music and more.

This further edition to Steffen Schleiermacher's Eisler anthology once again provides insights into an exciting composer's life that still receives far too little attention today. With his differentiated palette of expression and affinity for nuance, Schleiermacher is a master interpreter of Eisler's original, often surprising aesthetics encompassing an extremely wide variety of musical styles.

Lieder by Hanns Eisler, Rudi Stephan, Robert Kahn, Charles Ives "The album REMEMBRANCE is intended to convey the hope and desperate desire for peace - born of conscious memory and the lessons from the past. With this, my debut album, I want to encourage listeners to reflect and consciously remember the suffering and destruction of war and it's physical and psychological consequences. It should be a remembrance of those who fought for a better world, or dreamed of it. A memorial to all of those who innocently lost their lives far too early. The message of this music is today, unfortunately, more topical and relevant than ever. It challenges us to reflect on the human consequences of war and reminds us of the unceasing desire for peace and a better future." Marcel Brunner

October 29, 1923 was a date steeped in history. In the middle of a year of political and economic crises, the age of public radio in Germany was ushered in with the first broadcast of the "Berliner Funkstunde" (Berlin Radio Hour) from the attic of an office building on Potsdamer Platz. Radio offered entirely new possibilities for the production and reception of music. The two compositions on this CD not only benefited from these developments but also played an active role in shaping them.

Eduard Künneke's five-movement Concerto grosso "Tänzerische Suite" op. 26 for jazz band and large orchestra corresponded to modern dances: the Overture is a Foxtrot, the Andante a Blues, the Intermezzo a Tango, the valse mélancolique a Boston Waltz, and the Finale a Foxtrot again. The suite was celebrated as a milestone in contemporary radio music and soon became part of the regular concert program.

Hanns Eisler's cantata "Tempo der Zeit" (Tempo of the Times) op. 16 for soloists, narrator, choir, winds, and percussion was written in 1929. The libretto was written by the popular lyricist Robert Gilbert, under the pseudonym of David Weber. With its pure wind ensemble and percussion, "Tempo der Zeit" captures the typical Songspiel sound of the time. The fact that Eisler used the "modern" medium of radio, of all things, to get his fundamental criticism of blind enthusiasm for technology across to the people is an ironical aspect of the work’s composition and reception history. This CD is part of the special programme focus on the topic "The Wild Sound of the Twenties".