Bach Variations for Large Orchestra

After training as a Kapellmeister, Paul Dessau (1894–1976) worked at opera houses in Hamburg, Cologne, under Otto Klemperer, and Berlin, under Bruno Walter. Later, he turned away from musical theater and composed numerous film scores.

Due to his Jewish heritage and communist convictions, Dessau had to emigrate to France in 1933. There, he was introduced to twelve-tone technique by René Leibowitz. Upon the outbreak of the war, he fled to the United States, where a long-standing collaboration with Bertolt Brecht began. After the war, this collaboration was continued in East Berlin. Despite initial controversies, Dessau became one of the most important composers and composition teachers in the GDR, while maintaining a distance from the state.

In his most frequently performed orchestral work, the Bach Variations of 1963, Dessau connects themes by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Johann Sebastian Bach with motivic references to Arnold Schoenberg.

The long and eventful history of Edition Peters is characterized by the ongoing ambition to make the contemporary music of every period available in high-quality editions. An important chapter is the era of the divided Germany and the associated split of the publishing house. The composers of VEB Edition Peters in Leipzig made a valuable contribution with their work to both the identity of the publisher and European cultural history. Their compositions are stylistically and aesthetically versatile and are characterized by a strong communicative creative impulse within the possibilities of their time. This artistic individuality makes this repertoire particularly worth rediscovering.

Merk	Edition Peters
Instrument	Orchestra
Artikelnummer	EP9038
Barcode (EAN)	9790014124960