EISLER-STUDIEN – BEITRÄGE ZU EINER KRITISCHEN MUSIKWISSENSCHAFT Herausgegeben von Johannes C. Gall und Peter Schweinhardt im Auftrag der Internationalen Hanns Eisler Gesellschaft
Eisler-Studien
4
Oliver Dahin / Erik Levi (eds.)
Eisler in England Proceedings of the International Hanns Eisler Conference, London 2010
Eisler in England
England was one of a number of countries in which Hanns Eisler sought refuge after Hitler’s rise to power. Although the composer’s English residency was relatively short-lived and somewhat frustrating from a professional point of view, he nonetheless forged links with a number of significant British musicians including Alan Bush, Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett. Near the end of his life, England again assumed an important staging post for the post-war reappraisal of Eisler’s work when London hosted the first performance outside the GDR of the Deutsche Symphonie, a broadcast concert organised by the then young composer, Alexander Goehr. This fourth volume of the Eisler-Studien draws upon some fascinating papers that were presented at the International Hanns Eisler Conference held in London in April 2010. The topics covered are unusually wide-ranging bringing to light the close association that existed between Eisler and Alan Bush, and the impact of such an artistic liaison on the 1935 Strasbourg Workers Olympiad. There are pioneering studies of Eisler’s little-known contribution to the Richard Tauber film of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and the first detailed examination of the Eisler entry in the Comintern file. Different aspects of reception history are covered in a detailed documentary survey of the BBC performance of the Deutsche Symphonie in January 1962 and the more recent adaptation of the song An den kleinen Radioapparat by Sting. Preceding these is an overview of Eisler’s position in English musical life underpinned by the first close examination of the British Secret Service file on the composer which was only made available for public scrutiny in 2005.
Eisler-Studien
Band 4
Breitkopf & Härtel
ISBN 978Ͳ3Ͳ7651Ͳ0384Ͳ1
9 783765 103841 BV 384