Leo Spies

Vier Präludien für Streichquartett

Leo Spies (1899-1965) was born in Moscow and spent his early years in St Petersburg, before the First World War forced his family to move to Germany. Following composition studies in Berlin with Engelbert Humperdinck, he worked as an opera conductor and created orchestral scores for films and ballets by F. W. Murnau, Tatjana Gsovsky and others. After the Second World War he helped to establish the orchestra of East Berlin's Komische Oper and taught at the Berlin Academy of Arts, working closely with Hanns Eisler. He was one of East Germany's most eminent composers, receiving the Goethe Prize (1953) and the National Prize (1957). His Four Preludes for String Quartet were written in 1953. Throughout its long and eventful history, Edition Peters has consistently sought to support contemporary music, making it accessible in high-quality scores. The years in which Germany, and the publishing house itself, were divided between East and West form an important chapter in the company's story. The output of composers from the East German firm - then known as VEB Edition Peters, Leipzig - forms a unique and valuable part of the company's identity and, more widely, of European cultural history. Their works are compositionally and aesthetically diverse, while sharing a communicative creative drive. The artistic independence of the music created in East Germany between 1949 and 1990 makes this repertoire well worth rediscovering.