10. October 2022, 10:05 am
The Viennese composer Erich Zeisl had to flee his homeland in 1938 after the cruel November pogroms. Via Paris he first got to New York, then, with the support of friends who were also in exile, to Los Angeles, the city of the powerful film industry. He continued to compose film music until his death in 1959. Zeisl received his first commissions for the well-known documentary films “Fitzpatrick Traveltalks”. From the early 1930s, James A. FitzPatrick, aka “The Voice of the Globe,” directed a series of travel films distributed by MGM and released in theaters before the main films. The popular and technically up-to-date documentaries about architecture, religion, culture and history from all over the world used the then new Technicolor. Zeisl wanted something strangely appealing: to accompany images of the Pacific with the sounds of a waltz. With his compositions he created a livelihood for many other films, which, however, led directly to a creative crisis. The industry in which he was unable to realize his artistic dreams was too intriguing.
In “Anklang” the Zeisl biographer Karin Wagner talks about his time in Hollywood and how, as a Viennese composer, he was supposed to fulfill musical clichés that counteracted a carefree artistic development. These aspects of his life and work were also the focus of Karin Wagner’s lecture at the symposium “Exile, Modernism and Hollywood”, organized by exil.arte, the research center for persecuted music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in June 2022.
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Composer: Erich Zeisl/1905 – 1959
Album: CALIFORNIAN CONCERT: MUSIC OF EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS AND THEIR AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES – Susanne Kessel
Title: In the factory – No.8 from “Pieces for Barbara” for piano
Soloist: Susanne Kessel /piano
Length: 01:19 min
Label: Oehms Classics OC 534
Composer: Erich Zeisl/1905 – 1959
Template: Bible OT, Psalm 92
Lyricist, text source: Josef Freudenthal /text adaptation/1838 – 1928
Album: SERIES “DEARTTETE MUSIC” – FORBIDDEN MUSIC OF THE 30s AND 40s
Title: 12. Tzadik katomor yifroch / Soprano, Alto (00:03:51)
Beginning of text: The just shall sprout like a palm tree
Overall title: REQUIEM EBRAICO – Psalm 92 for soloists, choir and orchestra
Soloist: Deborah Riedel /soprano
Soloist: Della Jones /mezzo-soprano
Soloist: Michael Kraus / bass-baritone
Choir: Rundfunk Kinderchor Berlin
Choir rehearsal: Dieter Knothe
Orchestra: Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin
Direction: Lawrence Foster
Length: 03:51 min
Label: Decca 4602112
Composer: Erich Zeisl/1905 – 1959
Title: Second String Quartet
* Scherzo – 3rd movement (00:07:31)
Performers: The Brandeis – Bardin Ensemble
Performer/Performers: Mitchell Newman /Violin
Performer/Performers: Rene Mandel /Violin
Performer/Performers: Evan Wilson /Viola
Performer/Performers: David Low /Violoncello
Length: 07:27 min
Label: HM 907044
Composer: Erich Zeisl/1905 – 1959
Title: Piano Trio Suite in B minor, op.8
* Theme and Variations – 4.Satz (00:13:50)
Performers: The Brandeis – Bardin Ensemble
Performer/Performers: Daniel Shapiro /piano
Performer/Performers: Mitchell Newman /Violin
Performer/Performers: David Low /Violoncello
Length: 13:53 min
Label: HM 907044
Composer: Erich Zeisl/1905-1959
Template: Joseph Roth /novel template/1894-1939
Original: Franz Kafka / opera libretto
Album: ESCAPE TO PARADISE: THE HOLLYWOOD ALBUM – Daniel Hope
Title: Menuchims Lied – for violin and piano from the unfinished opera “Hiob” after the gln. Novel by Joseph Roth
Soloist: Daniel Hope /violin
Soloist: Jacques Ammon /piano
Length: 04:15 min
Label: DG/Universal 4792954