Eisler: Music for Piano

Featuring

Steffen Schleiermacher
Hanns Eisler

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Composer Biography

Hanns Eisler, a composer of the Second Viennese School, had an ambivalent relationship with the piano, seeing it as a relic of bourgeois musical culture.

Composer Biography

Eisler dedicated the 'Little Music for Dispelling Sentimental Moods' to Hedi Gutmann, who was known as 'Mrs. Eisler' for several years and later imprisoned in the Siberian Gulag.

Composer's Artistic Vision

For his pedagogical pieces, Eisler believed that music should teach musical logic using progressive new means, not merely reflect private moods or train technical virtuosity.

Compositional Technique

In his Klavierstücke Op. 8, Eisler cunningly arranged pieces to alternate between freely composed and more or less strict twelve-tone pieces.

Compositional Technique

The theme of Eisler's extensive Variations for Piano is a quotation of the famous quintet from Mozart's 'The Magic Flute,' where Papageno is prevented from speaking.

Composition History

Eisler's Piano Sonata No. 2, completed in 1926, was not published by him due to fundamental artistic and aesthetic doubts, and was only premiered in 1958.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Eisler aimed to build a new, socialist musical life where music would be useful, have a character of struggle and education, and serve enjoyment only secondarily.