Eisler travelled to Magnitogorsk in the Urals in May 1932. Here, the Dutch director Joris Ivens was making a documentary film about the incredible Magnitostroy mines. Bearing the name “Pesn o gerojach”, it contains the song “Heldenlied / Die Jugend hat das Wort”. The “Suite No. 4” is based on Eisler’s music to the film and embodies the powerful “Magnito-Komsomolzenlied” to a text by Tretakov – yet another so-called “Kampflied” of great note and one that in its new instrumental apparel dominates the suite’s third movement.
(Jürgen Schebera)