The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 43

20 1 Music The Guardian Friday August 28 1998 Styles and substance 4 page 15 to be pared down, ideas have to be simplified, emotions heightened; the most recent theatre piece, Seraphim (for eight singers and orchestra, first seen in 1994), does not use a text at all. There is more music-theatre in the pipeline; opera houses right across Europe (if not yet those in London, which still appear to be ignorant of his existence) are keen to host a premiere, and he talks intriguingly of the next, a collaboration with the German poet Hans Magnus Enzens-berger about a group of military dictators incarcerated in a lunatic asylum. What gives Rihm's music such resonance and immediacy, though, Is his imagery, the writing for instruments and his intuitive grasp of form, each utterly unique to the individual work with nothing handed down or borrowed. This gives everything he tackles tremendous internal energy and his music always completely defines its own world. But Rihm is well aware of the dangers of his methods of working.

The freedom he so defiantly celebrates brings its own restraints; a composer who does not adhere to any method has nothing to hide behind and must impose his own boundaries on what he writes. The ending of one piece always contains the beginning of the next, he says, and that production-line of inspiration continues to generate music of extraordinary beauty and intensity. Claudio Abbado conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in the London premiere of Rihm's In-Schnitt at the Proms tonight (Royal Albert Hall: 01 71 589 821 2). RANGEBETTMANNUPI Andrew Clements on a fine disc of Hanns Eisler's music, comprising film-score suites and cabaret satire Tower of song Modern's usual energy and rhythmic pungency, form the bulk of this collection. It is music that is quickwitted, sharply characterised and thoroughly melodic; each movement makes its musical point with the maximum economy of means.

In just the same way the scattering of songs, including the savagely satirical Song Of The SA Mann (to Brecht'3 words), manage to crystallise a message of political protest or warning, or of savage irony in a few bars. Eisler was one of the great song composers of the 20th century, and though the songs are not the primary interest here, every reminder of his significance is invaluable. To order this CD 99p), call the Guardian CultureShop on 0500 6001 02. form, and our expectations of it. Teasing, thought-provoking stuff.

Bruckner Symphony No 2 Berlin PhilharmonicBarenboim (Teldec 3984-21485-2) Daniel Barenboim's warmly expressive account of the Second Symphony is a thoroughly convincing example of the way in which he moulds Bruckner's great paragraphs, while maintaining the architectural rigour of the whole edifice. There are moments when the result is almost too warm the treatment of the second subject of the first movement, for instance, makes it sound like Tchaikovsky but to set against those is the craggy grandeur of Bruckner's climaxes, magnificently delivered by the Berlin Philharmonic, and the surefooted shaping of the slow movement and the finale Reviews by Andrew Clements. To order any CD 99p), call the Guardian CultureShop on 0500 6001 02. the dogma of post-war music, the example of Eisler (above) is clearly an important one. As a young man in the early 1920s, Eisler was a private pupil of Arnold Schoenberg's, but within a few years he had rejected serialism in favour of a language that was much more accessible, and began writing music that could serve a social function too.

He was soon collaborating with Bertoit Brecht, and in the 1930s started a prolific career as a composer for the cinema. The six suites for orchestra were assembled from those early film scores (including the famous Brecht-scripted Kuhle Wampe, from 1933, which provided the raw material for Suite No 3), and four of them, played with the Ensemble Schmidt, a precise contemporary of Schoenberg, was well aware that musical evolution had passed him by; it's the power of tonality and the Austro-German tradition that The Book With Seven Seals doggedly affirms, just as much as the religious message. Lloyd: Symphony No 4 BBC SymphonyBrabbins (NMC D046M) NMC's series of CD each devoted to one work, proves its worth again with this hugely impressive one-movement symphony by Jonathan Lloyd, 50 this year. Like so many of Lloyd's works it's hard to pin down. The raw material is extraordinarily eclectic there's a simple rising scale, a snatch of what sounds like Steve Reich, juxtaposed with phrases remembered from a nursery song and a Mozart piano concerto.

Lloyd poses a series of questions about the whole nature of symphonic Eisler: Suites for Orchestra Nos 2, 3, 4 Songs GruberEnsemble Modern (RCA 74321 568822) "Roaring Eisler" is the We, and that is precisely WSgm what HK Gruber jSBMfefJ doum on this disc, the composer's centenary. He may sometimes sound lilce Marfene Dietrich played at the wrong speed, but ruber's half-aung, half-spoken treatments of seven songs have a charm and an obvious affection all their own. For Gruber, a leading member of a group of Austrian composers who very publicly turned their backs on all THIS WEEK'S Schmidt: The Book With Seven Seals AndersonPapeBavarian Radio Orchestra ChorusWelser-Most (EMI 5566060 2) (2CDs) Franz Schmidt's massive oratorio, based upon the Book of Revelation, needs all the help recording technology can provide to sort out its dense textures, and that gives Franz Welser-Most's studio version one rnnsirlerahle advantage over its rivals. But this new version has con siderable musical virtues too WAlcav-MAct hoc an nhvfcmic aflfinWv IIUHl lUUailHW ww vw iwv with Schmidt's late-romantic lan guage, and always steers the music with authority and purpose. Wag ner's Mastersingers is the work's stylistic starting point, tnougn there are occasional hints that.