FOR LP COLLECTORS ONLY!!! 15 Great Novas

15 Great Novas
Following up on my previous post, I'm listing 15 great-sounding Nova LPs, arranged by catalogue number. I have awarded daggers (†) to Novas that are especially wonderful sounding, but do remember that virtually every Nova I’ve heard (and I’ve listened to scores of them) sounds at least very good, so don’t restrict yourself to the titles on my list. You can’t really go wrong with any Nova (or with Berlin Classics’ or Hastedt’s CD reissues of them).

885002
Günter Kochan: Symphony No. 2/Ernst Hermann Meyer: Symphony in B flat. Sanderling, Berlin SO; Suitner, Staatskapelle Berlin.
Günther Kochan (b. 1930) is the foremost of the second-generation of DDR composers—those born between the world wars. A student of Hanns Eisler’s, his symphonies and many concertante and chamber pieces are renowned for the utter lucidity with which their complex themes and rhythms are stated. Kochan’s Second Symphony is a brilliant example. A single-movement work—dedicated to the DDR on the occasion of its 20th anniversary—it marks a state occasion but (like all of Kochan’s music) is not overtly programmatic in content. On the contrary, it manages to be both a celebratory commemoration and thrilling, beautifully made art-music. Nova does its usual excellent job of recording—the sound is warm, spacious, transparent, and dynamic. (Also available on CD in Musik in der DDR, Vol. 1 [Berlin Classics].) If you like this disc you should definitely pick up Nova 885265, Kochan’s great Fourth Symphony, which has one of the most searingly powerful first movements in East German symphonic writing. (For Ernst Hermann Meyer, see Nova 885057, below.)

885020
Paul Dessau: Lenin (Orchestermusik Nr. 3); Mozart-Adaptation. Paul Dessau, Otto Suitner, cond., Staatskapelle Berlin.
Paul Dessau (b. 1894–d. 1979) was one of the “Big Four” of East German classical music (the others are Bertolt Brecht, Hanns Eisler, and Ernst Hermann Meyer)—a founding father of Socialist Realist music. A student of Rene Lebowitz (who introduced him to twelve-tone music) and a frequent collaborator with Brecht (Mother Courage and her Children), he fled to America during the war, where he composed film music in Hollywood, accompanying Brecht back to East Germany in 1948. Along with Eisler and Meyer, he is responsible for making serial (twelve-tone) music an acceptable “norm” in the DDR, though his absolutely delightful, completely straightforward, and wonderfully well-recorded paean to Mozart on this disc—the Symphonic Adaptation of the String Quintet in E flat major—is anything but discordant. (If you like this LP, I also recommend Dessau’s Orchestermusik 2 and 4 on Nova 885065—superbly crafted twelve-tone neo-classical orchestral works in huge, vibrant sound.)

†885026
Fritz Geissler: Sinfonie No. 5/Ruth Zechlin: Kammersinfonie. Herbert Kegel, Leipzig RSO; Helmut Koch, Berlin Chamber Orchestra.
In his eleven symphonies and many chamber and concertante works, Fritz Geissler (b. 1921–d. 1984) sought to reach as large an audience as possible. His music has been called dialectical in structure—“almost Hegelian” in the clarity of its syllogistic development and synthesis. The long, sad, agitated Adagios of his deeply moving Fifth Symphony sound more Mahlerian than Hegelian, though there is, indeed, a sense of dialectic in the overall structure of the piece. The recording is great, with astonishingly transparent and silkily beautiful string tone and deep, powerful bass. (If you like this piece you will want to try Geissler’s exciting Symphony No. 3—a twelve-tone work as transparently well-made as it is recorded—on Nova 885097. It is also available as a CD on Hastedt 5312.)

885057
Ernst Hermann Meyer: Violin Concerto. David Oistrakh, violin; Otmar Suitner, cond., Staatskapelle Berlin.
Like Dessau and Eisler, Ernst Hermann Meyer (b. 1905–d. 1988) is one of the Founding Fathers of Socialist Realist music, its most eloquent musical theoretician, and many would say its finest composer. A celebrated musicologist, he spent the war in exile in England, where he lectured at various universities, composed anti-Nazi radio broadcasts, and worked on a still-famous history of English chamber music. He returned to East Germany to teach and write in 1948. Influenced by Eisler (whom he studied with in the late 1920s), he perfected a music that was at once affirmative, singable, but fiercely discordant. His celebrated Violin Concerto (1964), played on this disc by the great Russian violinist David Oistrakh, is one of the Novas that earned international recognition for the quality of the music, the performance, and the recording. The sound is unusually big and spacious, with beautiful timbre and detail on Oistrakh’s violin. Inexplicably, the Violin Concerto has not been reissued on CD.

885063
Hanns Eisler: Piano Sonata, Op 1; 4 Pieces; Piano Sonata 2; 8 Pieces. Seigfried Stöckigt, Walter Olbertz, piano.
Along with Brecht, Hanns Eisler (b. 1898–d. 1962) is the most famous of the Founding Fathers of Socialist Realist music. The third and youngest of Schoenberg’s three gifted students (the other two were, of course, Berg and Webern), he broke with Schoenberg over the “uses” of music. (Schoenberg was apolitical and thought music an end unto itself; Eisler, a committed Communist, thought music should function as a form of political speech.) A frequent collaborator with Bertolt Brecht, Eisler, like so many anti-fascists, fled to America when the Nazis came to power and spent many years in Hollywood, writing film music. (Two of his scores were nominated for Academy Awards.) Virtually hounded out of this country by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, he returned to East Germany, where he wrote the DDR’s National Anthem and many other pieces. He was, unquestionably, the most influential of all East German composers and, in my opinion, along with Meyer and Kochan the best. These wonderful early piano pieces, including the magical Opus 1 Sonata written in 1924 when Eisler was still a student of Schoenberg, are very well played and recorded, with terrific attack and dynamic range. (Another extraordinary early composition of Eisler’s, Tagebuch des Hanns Eisler, is found on Nova 885142. Not only is it an exceptional recording, but a fascinating bit of autobiography—a cantata for three female voices, tenor, violin and piano written in 1926, soon after his vituperative break with Schoenberg and subsequent trips to Paris and Vienna, in which he looks ahead to the future: "Don't be so content with your sorrow; don't talk so much of your suffering in such damned interesting times!")

885064
Hanns Eisler: Ernste Gesange; Die Tage der Kommune; Schwejk im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Günter Leib, baritone; Günter Herbig, cond., Berlin RSO.
Gorgeous, atmospheric recording of baritone and orchestra in Eisler’s sad, beautiful, Mahlerian swan songs, Ernste Gesange (Serious Songs), with texts from Hölderlin. A great record. (Also available on CD in Musik in der DDR, Vol. II [Berlin Classics]. If you like choral music, you should try Eisler’s Neue deutsche Volkslieder on Nova 885021—also available as a CD on Berlin Classics 9232.)

885070
Günther Kochan: Piano Concerto, Concerto for Orchestra. Dietrich Zechlin, piano; Herbert Kegel, Leipzig RSO.
Frankly, you can’t go wrong with anything composed by Günther Kochan. Here Nova delivers twin delights in lively, utterly transparent sound: Kochan’s wonderful, youthful Piano Concerto, which has much of the sunny tunefulness of Bartok’s Third Piano Concerto, and his delightful Concerto for Orchestra, the Larghetto of which is absolutely gorgeous. A must-own LP. (The Piano Concerto is also available on Hastedt CD 5303.)

†885110
Ernst Hermann Meyer: Symphony for Strings. Wolf-Dieter Hauschild, Leipzig RSO
From its majestic opening bars to its concluding Allegro, Meyers’ Symphony for Strings is a masterpiece that stands comparison to any of the great twentieth-century works for string orchestra. Happily, the sound is worthy of the subject. Though the strings have a little bite (much as they do in Decca’s famous recording of Bartók’s Divertimento for String Orchestra, of which, in places, Meyer’s piece is reminiscent), the recording still beautifully conveys the height and depth of this amazing music. One of the great Novas. (Also available on a German CD, Musik in Deutsland [sic] 1950-2000 [BMG 74321-73508-2].)

†885182
Georg Katzer: Divertissement à 3/Friedrich Schenker: Trioballade/Siegfried Thiele: Proportionen. Aulos-Trio (oboe, cello, piano).
Another second-generation DDR composer, Siegfried Thiele (b. 1934) was a student of Rudolph Wagner-Régeny, and himself became one of the great teachers in the DDR. Influenced by Hindemith, Bartók, and Orff, his music has an unusual (for the DDR) confessional quality, although his Proportionen on this set of jazzy pieces for oboe, cello, and piano is sweet and playfully so. Like all of this Leipzig composer’s music on Nova, it is also a work of considerable craft and wit. The sound on it and the other two pieces is superb—rich tone colors, deep solid bass, natural size and scale, and lifelike dynamics on all three instruments. (Also available on CD in Musik in der DDR, Vol. III [Berlin Classics]. If you like the Katzer piece on this disc, you may also want to try his Elegisch for two guitars on Nova 885262.)

†885186
Reiner Bredemeyer: DiAs; Oboe Concerto; Synchronisiert: Asynchron; Schlagstück 5. Burkhard Glaestzner, oboe; Harmut Haenchen, cond., Staatskapelle Berlin; Dieter Brauer, piano; Joachim Gruner, percussion.
Another excellent second-generation DDR composer, Reiner Bredemeyer (b. 1929–d. 1995) studied with Karl Höller and Rudolph Wagner-Régeny, both of whom were much influenced by late Romanticism. One of the most openly experimental of East German composers—and one of the most wittily theatrical—Bredemeyer is an avant-gardist who did not abandon classical forms. This disc of playful, amusing, modernist musical pastiche, with a funny orchestral deconstruction of two of Beethoven’s Bagatelles (followed by a lovely recording of same, played straight on the piano), is a fine introduction to his work. Although the sound is uniformly excellent, the delightful Schlagstück 5 for piano and percussion is a genuine sonic jaw-dropper—as well-recorded as LPs get. (DiAs is also available on CD in Musik in der DDR, Vol. III [Berlin Classics]). If you like this LP, you can find more of Bredemeyer’s hi-jinks in Serenade 3 for chamber orchestra on Nova 885168, coupled with Bernd Weflemeyer’s …und aufblüht der Tag (…and blooms the day), a cantata for mezzo and winds that, like Serenade 3, is very well recorded. Also highly recommended: His (Cello)2 on Nova †885078, a witty piece for cello quartet that is as well-recorded as anything on this list.

†885197
Andreas Aigmüller: Free Sound for Two (piano, percussion); Teotihuacan (Aztec flute, percussion)/Lothar Voigtlander: Variation und Collage (voice, tape); Dialog (piano, percussion); Studie in drei Teilen (flute). Dieter Brauer, piano; Joachim Gruner, percussion.
Third-generation DDR composers, Andreas Aigmüller (b. 1952) was trained as a percussionist as well as a composer and Lothar Voigtlander (b. 1943), a student of Geissler and Kochan, was East Germany’s foremost composer of electro-acoustic music. Sonically, both show well on this LP. The recordings of Aigmüller’s Free Sound for Two and Voigtlander’s Dialog for piano and percussion are right up there with the Bredemeyer Schlagstück 5 for in-the-room-with-you vividness. (Also available on CD in Musik in der DDR, Vol. III [Berlin Classics].)

†885205
Paul Dessau: Musik für fünfzehn Streichinstrumente/Siegfried Köhler: Kommentare (chamber orchestra)/Siegfried Matthus: Visionen (string orchestra)/Manfred Weiss: Fantasie (14 strings). Manfred Scherzer, cond, Dresden Kammerorchester.
A collection of works for string orchestra with excellent transients, very deep bass, exceptionally natural timbres, and lifelike presence on all instruments. The music is also very good—with Matthus’ nightmarish Visionen (Visions) and Weiss’ Fantasie standouts.

885206
Siegfried Thiele: Hommage à Machaut/Katzer: Empfindsame Musik. Rosmarie Lang, alto; Frank-Peter Späthe, baritone; Kurt Masur, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
Thiele’s lovely Gallic-flavored cantata for two voices and orchestra is intended as an homage to Guillaume de Machaut, the great French musician of the late Middle Ages, with a French text from a ballade of Eustache Deschamps written at the time of Machaut’s death (1377). The recording is simply gorgeous, both voices and orchestra—spacious, transparent, and alive. (Also available on CD in Musik in der DDR, Vol. 1 [Berlin Classics].)

885216
Udo Zimmermann: Sinfonia come un grande lamento; Ode an das Leben; Der Mensch. Günter Herbig, Berlin SO.
A student of Günther Kochan’s, Udo Zimmermann (b. 1943) is undoubtedly the most renowned of the third-generation DDR (now German) composers. Influenced by the so-called “new simplicity” style, he breathed fresh life into operatic and symphonic music. (His opera Levins Mühle [Nova 885119] is an acknowledged masterwork.) The Sinfonia come un grande lamento is an orchestral threnody—divided into three movements labeled ecclesiastically Antiphon, Psalm, and Antiphon—composed in memory of the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, murdered by fascist soldiers in 1936 at the start of the Spanish Civil War. The sweet transparent sonics make the lovely Ligeti-like palimpsest of strings, winds, and percussion quite impressively evocative of Spain’s tragic history and of Lorca’s. A grand lament, indeed. (Also available on CD in Musik in der DDR, Vol. 1 [Berlin Classics].)

†885267
Hanns Eisler: Tucholsky-Lieder 1.
These delightful cabaret/art songs with lyrics by the leftwing social satirist and anti-Nazi Kurt Tucholsky (whom the Nazis exiled and whose books they burned after they came to power in 1933) boast incredibly realistic reproduction of voice and very good reproduction of piano. Though this is a studio recording, more upfront and less ambient than some others, it is still one of the great-sounding Novas.[/i]