Zeisl: Lieder, Vol. 3

Featuring

Sara Hershkowitz
So-Mang Jeagal
Gloria Cheng
Erich Zeisl

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Composer Biography

Erich Zeisl, born in Vienna in 1905, began improvising at the piano and composing his first songs at a young age.

Composition History

By 1934, Zeisl was described by Austrian composer and musicologist Paul Amadeus Pisk as 'one of the best Viennese composers under 30,' having already composed art songs, chamber music, choral and orchestral pieces, Masses, an early opera, and a jazz-infused ballet.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Zeisl considered himself an heir to the German Lied tradition, with his work always tonal and rooted in late Romanticism, often drawing on texts from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, similar to Gustav Mahler.

Composer Biography

After fleeing Austria, Zeisl, like many exiled musicians, tried to work in Hollywood for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) but experienced a profound creative crisis due to the film industry's disregard for artistic quality.

Composition History

The Pieces for Barbara, a collection of 13 easier piano miniatures, were written by Zeisl for his daughter Barbara, born in New York in 1940, and are tailored for young piano learners.

Composition History

In 1944-45, Zeisl composed the Requiem Ebraico, a deeply religious piece dedicated to his father, who was murdered in Treblinka, and to the victims of the Holocaust, which is considered one of the first musical reactions to the tragedy.

Historical Context

Zeisl's career was destroyed by the Anschluss in 1938, leading to the cancellation of his Singspiel Leonce und Lena and his inclusion in lists of proscribed composers.