Dancing on a Volcano presents a curated survey of German musical culture from the Weimar period, performed by Ensemble Modern under the direction of HK Gruber. The album encompasses works by Hindemith, Schoenberg, Weill, and Korngold, ranging from the neo-classical spikiness of Kammermusik No 1 to the existential dissonance of Schoenberg's film music. Gruber conducts these pieces with razor-sharp precision, negotiating the stylistic contrasts between each composer's distinctive voice.
The repertoire is historically significant: all four composers were compelled to flee Nazi Germany, which dismissed their output as "too modern, too jazzy, too Jewish". Wallis Giunta provides the vocal centerpiece in Gruber and Muthspiel's authorized arrangement of Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins, supported by Amarcord's male quartet. The result is a compelling document of the vibrant artistic life that was extinguished by the rise of totalitarianism in Europe.
Sources: theguardian.com
The words in bold are from the article.
| 1. survey | a. unique |
| 2. encompasses | b. includes |
| 3. precision | c. persuasive |
| 4. distinctive | d. authoritarian rule |
| 5. compelled | e. accuracy |
| 6. output | f. overview |
| 7. totalitarianism | g. forced |
| 8. authorized | h. sanctioned |
| 9. compelling | i. destroyed |
| 10. extinguished | j. work |
1.f 2.b 3.e 4.a 5.g 6.j 7.d 8.h 9.c 10.i