Erich Zeisl emerged as a prominent example of Viennese moderate modernism in the 1920s. After emigration he sought – but failed – to establish himself...

Erich Zeisl emerged as a prominent example of Viennese moderate modernism in the 1920s. After emigration he sought – but failed – to establish himself in Hollywood but found new depths of expression in composing Jewish music. His songs show an imaginative richness of melodic distinction that embraces the romantic as well as the grotesque and is always rooted in late Romanticism. Apart from his distinctive sequence of spirituals, all the songs date from his days in Austria and show why Zeisl was held in such admiration by Korngold, Stravinsky, Milhaud and many others.