Country : Germany Label : BR Klassik Genres and styles : Modern Classical Year : 2023

Munich Radio Orchestra/Ernst Theis – The Wild Sound of the 1920s : Music of Künneke and Eisler

· by Frédéric Cardin

This album plunges us into both the optimistic and gritty atmosphere of Germany in the 1920s, the decade that preceded the Great Depression and the descent into hell that accompanied the Nazis’ rise to power. 

Optimism is represented by the Tänzerische Suite (Dance Suite), also known as Concerto grosso, op. 26 für Jazzband und großes Orchester (Concerto grosso for jazz ensemble and large orchestra) by Eduard Künneke, a well-known composer of operettas, film music (including Ernst Lubitsch’s The Pharaoh’s Wife in 1922) and “light music”. Radio appeared in Germany in 1923, and it soon became common practice to commission works to be created specifically for the broadcast orchestra. One of these was this Suite of Dances, in which the Foxtrot, the Blues and the Boston Waltz are illuminated by a flourishing orchestration and a very seductive atmosphere of good humour. This Suite is an obvious inspiration for the similar exercise that Dmitri Shostakovich would carry out a little later. A very pleasant discovery played with many successful colouristic effects by Erns Theis’s orchestra.

Another of these radio commissions is Hans Eisler’s cantata Tempo des Zeit (Tempo of Present Time), for soloists, narrator, choir, brass and percussion. The cantata also bears the title Cantate des petites gens, an ironic detail when you consider that it premiered three months before the stock market crash of 1929, which was to throw millions of “ordinary” people into the throes of misery shortly afterwards. This cantata is in a completely different league to Künneke’s almost solar Dance Suite. Eisler is skeptical about the promises of modernity. His narrator says: “Yes, those with money travel the world in style! And those who have none are content to walk…”.

Eisler had clearly seen the limits of the promises of the unbridled capitalism of the time. These limits were violently confirmed three months later. The sound universe is of the same order: chromatic and dissonant harmonies, jazz-influenced rhythms that are shaken up and made less linear, followed by a text of social commitment and denunciation of inequalities. 

The interpretations led by Theis and rendered by all the artists are precise and finely drawn.

The two opuses in this programme form a contrasting, even dichotomous musical pairing, but in this, they are the perfect example of the zeitgeist of 1920s Germany.

Latest 360 Content

FIJM | Saxophonist and vocalist Camille Thurman, New Montreal Hidden Treasure

FIJM | Saxophonist and vocalist Camille Thurman, New Montreal Hidden Treasure

Festival de Lanaudière | Bruckner and Payare: cathedral builders

Festival de Lanaudière | Bruckner and Payare: cathedral builders

FIJM | Marcus Strickland and The Black Fusion Following

FIJM | Marcus Strickland and The Black Fusion Following

FIJM | Jean Michel Blais & Lara Somogyi: Fruits of The Desert

FIJM | Jean Michel Blais & Lara Somogyi: Fruits of The Desert

FIJM | Fievel is Glauque For Dessert… Dessert loaded!

FIJM | Fievel is Glauque For Dessert… Dessert loaded!

FIJM | Thursday Ends With Suuns

FIJM | Thursday Ends With Suuns

FIJM | Misc: Beat Bouquet Well Garnished!

FIJM | Misc: Beat Bouquet Well Garnished!

FIJM | Alexis Lombre and the Holy Spirit in the South Side of Chicago

FIJM | Alexis Lombre and the Holy Spirit in the South Side of Chicago

FIJM | Allison Russel’s Apotheosis Concert in Her Hometown

FIJM | Allison Russel’s Apotheosis Concert in Her Hometown

FIJM I Best Dressed, Most Possessed: Fantastic Negrito Stupefies Rogers Stage

FIJM I Best Dressed, Most Possessed: Fantastic Negrito Stupefies Rogers Stage

FIJM 2025 | Beth McKenna : raising her Momentum

FIJM 2025 | Beth McKenna : raising her Momentum

Nuits d’Afrique | Immersion In The World of Stogie T

Nuits d’Afrique | Immersion In The World of Stogie T

FIJM | Julius Rodriguez, Jazz Groove Ace

FIJM | Julius Rodriguez, Jazz Groove Ace

FIJM | Men I Trust Shines Brightly on The Place des Festivals

FIJM | Men I Trust Shines Brightly on The Place des Festivals

FIJM | Anomalie and Lettieri: A New Musical Friendship, Developing in Real Time

FIJM | Anomalie and Lettieri: A New Musical Friendship, Developing in Real Time

FIJM | Linda May Han Oh, A Role Model for Female Double-Bass Players

FIJM | Linda May Han Oh, A Role Model for Female Double-Bass Players

Nuits d’Afrique | La Chiva Gantiva As Seen by Rafael Espinel

Nuits d’Afrique | La Chiva Gantiva As Seen by Rafael Espinel

Suoni | The Spiritual Quest, The End in Transcendence

Suoni | The Spiritual Quest, The End in Transcendence

FIJM | Thundercat, A Feline on The Loose

FIJM | Thundercat, A Feline on The Loose

FIJM | Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan and Rudy Royston Exposed

FIJM | Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan and Rudy Royston Exposed

FIJM | Branford Marsalis Among Four MF’s Playin’ Tunes… Live!

FIJM | Branford Marsalis Among Four MF’s Playin’ Tunes… Live!

FIJM | About Derrick Hodge’s Idea of the Color of Noize

FIJM | About Derrick Hodge’s Idea of the Color of Noize

FIJM | Queen of Afrobeats, Ayra confirms her status as a Global… Starr

FIJM | Queen of Afrobeats, Ayra confirms her status as a Global… Starr

FIJM | Black Jazz by Marquis Hill

FIJM | Black Jazz by Marquis Hill

Subscribe to our newsletter