Deutsche Sinfonie, Op. 50, is a composition for soloists, chorus and orchestra by Hanns Eisler

Hanns Eisler

Hanns Eisler was an Austrian composer.-Family background:Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy...

. Despite the title, it is considered to be more in the style of a cantata

Cantata

A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....

 than a symphony

Symphony

A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...

. Principally composed between 1935 and 1947, but not completed until 1957, it is an eleven-movement setting of poems by Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...

, drawn mainly from Brecht's Songs, Poems and Choruses of 1934, and by Ignazio Silone

Ignazio Silone

Ignazio Silone was the pseudonym of Secondino Tranquilli, an Italian author and politician.-Early life and career:...

, adapted by Eisler. It was premiered in its full form at the German State Opera, East Berlin

East Berlin

East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...

, on 24 April 1959. Brecht had died in 1956.

Eisler's theme was the advance of Nazism

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 in Germany. Yet the composer encountered difficulties in both reception and performance of the work throughout its long period of composition and development. When the first two movements (at this stage subtitled An Anti-Hitler Symphony) won a prize at the 15th Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music, gaining a promised performance of them at the 1937 Paris World Exhibition, the Nazi regime persuaded the French government to have the performance cancelled. And it was not until 1995 that the work was finally given a studio recording, with soloists and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is one of the the oldest symphony orchestras in the world...

 under Lothar Zagrosek

Lothar Zagrosek

Lothar Zagrosek is a German conductor. As a youth, he sang in the Regensburg Cathedral choir, including performances as the First Boy in The Magic Flute at the 1954 Salzburg Festival...

; this was released in Decca Records

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

' Entartete Musik series.

Movements

1. Präludium
2. An die Kämpfer in den Konzentrationslagern [To the fighters in the concentration camps]
3. Etüde für Orchester
4. Erinnerung (Potsdam
   Potsdam
   Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
   
   ) [Memory]
5. In Sonnenburg
6. Intermezzo für Orchester
7. Begräbnis des Hetzers im Zinksarg [Burial of the trouble-maker in a zinc coffin]
8. Bauernskantate: A. Mißernte, B. Sicherheit, C. Flüstergespräche, D. Bauernliedchen [Peasant Cantata: A. Crop failure, B. Security, C. Dialogue in whispers, D. Sickle song]
9. Arbeiterkantate [Song of the class enemy]
10. Allegro für Orchester
11. Epilog