"Although most of the work is vocal, there are three instrumental sections, which form a kind of symphony within a symphony ... It is twelve-tone but not aggressively dissonant. Indeed, it often suggests Mahler or Berg, or non-serial composers such as Zemlinsky and Schreker ... This performance is an old one, dating from 1989 ... but it was worth digging up from the vaults as it is very good and the work is not often performed or recorded ... The conductor Günther Theuring ... leads an assured performance. Of the soloists I particularly liked the mezzo-soprano Hanna Fahlbusch-Wald but the others are all competent. The chorus was enthusiastic and precise, the orchestral playing very secure ... This is a strange, uneven but impressive work, a document of its time but also more than that. I was very pleased to get to know it".