Conductor Hannah Eisendle’s Musikverein debut with Musikgymnasium Wien’s choir and orchestra in the Großer Saal on March 28th was a tour de force of musical interpretation. A concert of contrasts, the evening was divided into darkness and light, loss and hope. Although only thirty, she conducted with firm intention, uniting the music of Brahms, Britten, Stravinsky, and Bernstein.
The concert began with Johannes Brahms’ Tragic Overture for orchestra in d minor, op. 81. A powerful piece, it evoked a feeling of the timeless human experience of personal and political loss. It was particularly poignant to me in our current climate. As the music unfolded, I could not help but be reminded of the tragedy which confronts us as we witness the Ukraine War and other turmoil that inflicts our world.
Immediately following this contemplative and sorrowful overture, Hannah Eisendle gave a spirited performance of Benjamin Britten’s Ballad of Heroes, op. 14. Again, the music inspired me to think of life today. In her use of the chorus of the Musikgymnasium Wien, I could almost hear an echo of the disillusionment widely felt with today’s Ukraine war. Auden’s words sprang to my mind: “It’s farewell to the drawing room’s civilized cry, The professor’s sensible whereto and why, the frock-coated diplomat’s social aplomb, Now matters are settled with gas and bomb.” Written in protest against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, Britten’s Ballad commemorates the feeling of helplessness that always accompanies war. “Europe lies in the dark,” so the chorus before concluding with the nameless funeral march with its cadences of doom and despair.
The concert continued on to Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird and Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. These pieces lent themselves convincingly to the high school orchestra and choir. As the choir and students of the gymnasium formed a U on the balcony, they lent their innocent voices to the recitation of the psalms, an illustration of the natural urge to take a firm and conscientious stance in support of timeless values. The youth orchestra’s mastery of timbre as well as of color proved itself in a spectacular performance of The Firebird. While listening to it, I felt as if for a moment I could join Stravinsky to again fire the creative imagination.
Hannah Eisendle’s energy acts like a prism of talent and interpretive gift. A conductor, composer, and pianist, the foundation of her music lies in her formative years with the Musikgymnasium Wien followed by piano class in Hamburg and conducting class under Mark Stringer at the University of Musik and Applied Arts in Vienna. Among other prizes, Hannah won the Austrian State Scholarship for Composition in 2021 and the open call for composers of the Austrian Cultural Forum in London. Her conducting premiere at the Konzerthaus in March 2022 under the direction of Marin Alsop was followed by many international engagements including an August 2022 performance at the BBC Proms in London. She will debut in the United States in St. Louis, Missouri, this August.
Staying within the classical realm, Hannah Eisendle’s performance evidenced that musical gifts and one-dimensionality do not align; rather that the range and virtuosity of composition demands an equal measure of interpretation. Music as such is not merely intellectual. She illustrates this with a spirited and novel direction.
The performance ended with several minutes of standing ovations. Following this momentous evening, we expect to hear more of her at the conducting podium in future!
