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Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 14, Number 1

Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 14, Number 1

Newsletter Volume 14,16, Number 1 13

(Continued from page 12) that the entire creative team devised it, with Brecht more marginal- ly involved than usual. Without James’s ideas and money, however, the ballet would never have existed. The world would be a poorer place, especially because the existence of Les Ballets 1933 led directly to the creation of The New York City Ballet. And the translation? The first question people ask is, “Is it any good?” It was done in a hurry. Stresses occasionally fall in the Passage from “Völlerei” (“Gluttony”) with English translations of the wrong place, and some note values are changed. Some editing is different foods written above the staff. (Yale Music Library, MSS. 30, needed, but the answer is generally “yes.” The translation is a won- Ser.I.A, box 30, folder 417) derfully apposite mixture of biblical homily and 1930s slang. The various “versions” may be accounted for as follows: James made course, the hero who discovered that the scenario for the piece was the initial translation by himself, then possibly he showed it to not by Brecht, but by James and Kochno.) After further research, I Weill. But Weill left for Italy, leaving work on the translation fall to returned to West Dean and reread James’s reply to Drew’s letter. It Lenya. Although her English was not then fluent, Lenya could was, of course, written long after the events it discussed, and by now explain to James that the language needed to be colloquial, more I knew enough to see that much of it was pure fiction. For instance, Bronx and less Mayfair. She then literally sat with James, spurring Weill could not have been involved in the translation because he him on. So, a phrase like “Greediness is venal” became “Love of went to Italy immediately after the opening night in Paris, and sub- food is lousy.” “Money” is often “dough,” and Anna’s family sequent letters to him from Lenya show that she was working on the warns her not to rob people of their “last red cent.” Only once, in translation with James because “the other one” was unusable. “Lust,” does James eradicate Brecht’s socio-political agenda when, I began to wonder whether, despite what was printed in books, rather than explaining that people can only do what they like if they anyone had seriously tried to track down James’s translation before. are financially independent, Anna I simply points out the risks of It had not, after all, taken much ingenuity to approach West Dean. dangling two men on one hook. But otherwise the translation is Perhaps there might be a copy in the States. Surely the conductor lively and viable. Maurice Abravanel must have had the words put into his score. And “baloney”? Ironically the word that started off the hunt Could it be unearthed, or might there be relevant material at the appears in neither the Yale nor West Dean scores. The word Yale University Music Library, which has a large collection of “lächerlich” is left untranslated. So, who knows? I may still be Weill-Lenya papers? proven right. I faxed the Weill-Lenya Research Center in New York with news of what had been found so far. An enthusiastic letter came back say- ing that Yale did indeed have a vocal score that contained an English text, and Weill had inscribed it at the end with “16 April-4 Mai 1933 Paris, 11 Place des États-Unis,” the address of the de Noailles, with whom Weill had stayed when he wrote the piece. This meant that the Yale score matched the West Dean duplicates. I felt sure that it would contain the James translation, and I hoped it would fill in the gaps. I faxed again asking whether “baloney” was the translation of “lächerlich,” the word Anna I uses to imply that the notion she is involved with her sister’s boyfriend is “laughable.” I also asked if the phrase describing idleness was “mother of all vices” or “first of all the vices.” Either would confirm my hunch. Time went by, but the questions surrounding the translation would not go away. Finally, on Thanksgiving day, a piece of paper slid out of my fax machine. It was a copy of the Weill-Lenya Research Center’s e-mail correspondence with Suzanne Eggleston of the Yale Music Library. She had written, “I pulled the vocal score yesterday. Faulheit is number II (2). The phrase has been translated as ‘Idleness is first of all the vices’.” It was indeed a day for thanksgiving. In due time a photocopy of the Yale score arrived. Printed in a reverse, positive image (so that you have to read it hold- ing it up to a light), the vocal score and translation are complete. During the course of the hunt for the translation, some useful information surfaced about the genesis of Die sieben Todsünden. Kochno deserves more credit than he has been given until now. He struck the deal with James. He wanted Weill on board. He gave the work its title before Brecht appeared on the scene, and, as the cre- ator of scenarios for eight Diaghilev ballets (and the text for Mavra), Kochno may well have been the greatest contributor to the Full page from “Habsucht” (“Avarice”). (Yale Music Library, MSS. 30, storyline. It also seems that suggested some of the Ser.I.A, box 30, folder 417) plot, while Balanchine had the idea for the famous image of the two girls under one cloak. Die sieben Todsünden was indeed a “Gesamtkunstwerk,” not in the Wagnerian sense, but “gesamt” in Adam Pollock is the artistic director of the Batignano Festival in Italy. 14 Volume 14,16, Number 1 Kurt Weill Newsletter

through a thicket of legal rulings, clarifications of previous judg- Books ments, and contemporary commentaries on the case with a sure sense of what is important. Somewhat puzzling, however, is his (presumably deliberate) decision to devote no space to a considera- and Critical Theory: tion of Kurt Weill’s position in the events. Surely some discussion of the details of Weill’s case and in his favor would have , and the thrown more light on Brecht’s case and its failure. Moreover, the Threepenny Lawsuit correspondence between Weill and Universal Edition would have been a valuable source for establishing just how accurate Brecht’s by Steve Giles assessment of the behavior of the film people might have been. Even Weill writes (28 September 1930) that “everything is happen- Berne: Peter Lang, 1997. 202 pp. ing in continuous breach of our contracts”(!); and on 9 October ISBN 3-906757-20-X / US ISBN 0-8204-3400-0 1930 he asserts that he has “to protest against the kitsch being man- ufactured,” going on to describe the methods as the sort of thing “one only thought possible in Wild West novels.” Three things resulted from Brecht’s first involvement with a major In the discussion of Der Dreigroschenprozess itself, Giles takes film project: a court case on the question of his and Weill’s rights in the opportunity to point to Brecht’s often economical (in several the stage-to-screen version of ; a lengthy, senses) approach to facts and his ability ex post facto to present dense, at times brilliantly, at times speciously argued treatise on the details and issues in a way that best suits an already predetermined conclusions to be drawn from the case and the court’s judgment; method of argument. This is not to deny the importance of Der and the film itself. Steve Giles’s study addresses the first two of Dreigroschenprozess and the sometimes dazzling, often inconsistent, these at some length. and always provocative arguments, expositions, and commentaries In the first two of seven chapters Giles focuses on the case itself that Brecht offers on questions such as the relationship between (referred to as “the Beule Suit”—which may or may not have knowledge and production, capital and art and culture, ideology seemed at the time a drolly custom-tailored pun) and on copyright and ideas, theory and praxis. But while Giles’s establishment of theory pertaining to moral rights and economics. He devotes the elective affinities between Brecht and Benjamin (especially in the greater part of the study to a consideration of Brecht’s responses to case of the latter’s crucial essay “The Work of Art in the Age of logical empiricism and social behaviorism, to Karl Korsch’s brand Mechanical Reproduction”) is revealing, it sometimes seems as if of Marxism, and to a development of accounts of ideology, social- he thinks Brecht and Benjamin to be writers with a shared approach scientific method, and the theory-praxis relationship as part of a to fundamental cultural and ideological issues. That this was far response to, and critique of, Walter Benjamin’s and Korsch’s ideas. from the case is borne out by Brecht’s critical comments on To conclude, he considers the contemporary relevance of Der Benjamin’s “aura” theory (Journals, 25 July 1938), a detail assigned Dreigroschenprozess. to a footnote on page 165 without further substantive discussion. In one sense, the case for the “contemporary” relevance of Der Such differences of attitude between the two were more often than Dreigroschenprozess was made earlier in the book, and I suspect that not a reflection of Brecht’s views on the relationship between form I might not be alone in finding the gallop through and around fields (or rather style) and content—views which were conditioned by his signposted post/structuralism, anti-humanism, the death of the own fondness for “plumpes Denken,” for sentences which “inter- author, paradigm shifts, and post-modern, sociotemporal, cultural, vened” or “engaged” (Gesammelte Werke 20, p. 173), and for a treat- radicalized and sociological modernity(-ies?) exhausting. Moreover, ment of complex issues with concise and clear language (Briefe, p. given that Giles entitles the last chapter “Pipped at the Post,” one is 300). Such observations might usefully be heeded by today’s tempted to borrow the equine analogy and suggest that this particu- paraders of “lit-crit” positions, most of whose writings are notable lar nag is handicapped by being asked to carry too much weight. for a combination of prolixity and hectoring, pontificating shrill- That the track also features a few too many hurdles is also hinted at ness. by the author’s roping together of stylistic and critical solecisms. While there may well be analogies between some of Brecht’s On the one hand, he concedes that there is “a Brecht . . . of whom views and the positions of some contemporary theorists, it is well to it might be said . . . ‘My name is Brecht: and there’s a helluva lot of remember that the Brecht (not, in this case, one of many) who us’” (p. 169); on the other, he solemnly asserts that he has “the wrote to Benjamin that he admired his essay on Eduard Fuchs rather more modest aim of exploring the, or an/other, Brecht syn- (“there’s not a touch of decoration, but everything is elegant (in the chronically.” Looking to place a bet on any of these particular run- good old sense)” [Briefe, p. 325]) and who sought, only partly in ners, one is tempted to fall back on Roy Campbell’s quip: “But jest, assurances from Helene Weigel that the sentences in Korsch’s where’s the bloody horse?” In another sense, the absolutely con- Marx book were “still nice and short” (Briefe, p. 273), would have temporary relevance of the case and Brecht’s methods of argument had little hesitation in branding many of today’s proficient purvey- might be viewed in a different light, given the recent court case ors of intellectual commodities as exemplary (and hence brought by his heirs in Germany and the subsequent decision to deplorable) Tuis. prevent distribution of Heiner Müller’s Germania 3: Gespenster am toten Mann because of questions of “intellectual property.” Michael Morley The most valuable contributions the book makes to Brecht The Flinders University of South Australia scholarship are the clear, measured, and well-researched details of the lawsuit itself, the chronology of the collaboration between Brecht, Weill, and Nero Film AG, the reasons for the judgment, Tui: from the initials of the reversed Tellekt-Uell-In, a term Brecht used to and the setting of the relevant issues—authorship, moral rights, refer pejoratively to “landlords of the intellect” and “intellectuals of the era of the marketplaces and commodities,” who excel in phrase-mongering, jar- intellectual property, adaptation of an existing script—within the gon deployment, and obscurantism. They are at the center of his Tuiroman context of court rulings from the period. Giles leads the reader and the . Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 14,16, Number 1 15

mony, counterpoint, rhythm, leitmotifs, meter, pitch, and orches- Books tration function on the Broadway stage. Although Block claims that “the language of the analysis is intended to be accessible to readers unversed in musical vocabulary,” the diction in his musicological Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway passages is likely to be troublesome for the lay reader; nonetheless, the author’s pledge to focus on “the musical expression of dramat- Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim ic meanings and dramatic context” yields fertile insights to theorist and layman alike. Block’s procedure is to focus on a few represen- by Geoffrey Block tative numbers from each show, suggesting ways in which music illuminates mood or character, or provides a narrative climax. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 410 pp. Not surprisingly, Block’s chapter on Weill, “ ISBN 0-19-510791-8 and : The Broadway Stranger and His American Dreams,” is wonderfully fair-minded, an all-too-rare instance of a critic judging the Broadway work on its own merits rather than in In his engagingly titled new study Geoffrey Block provides a close- disillusioned comparison to the composer’s European oeuvre. up look at fourteen musicals and then, in a structurally divergent Block is neither shocked by nor disapproving of Weill’s adjustment final chapter, assesses Sondheim’s career. Happily, among Block’s to the demands of Broadway, nor does he feel the fact that Weill’s selected musicals are two by Kurt Weill, Lady in the Dark and One chief competitor was rather than Touch of Venus, and ’s labor musical, The Cradle Will presupposed a falling off in musical accomplishment. To make the Rock. His other choices—including Porgy and Bess, Pal Joey, case for Weill’s Broadway works, Block does not devalue the com- Carousel, My Fair Lady, and West Side Story—are, by design, poser’s landmark collaborations with Brecht or his modernist con- entirely unsurprising: Block is not a contentious revisionist, a cert pieces; rather, like Weill himself, Block appreciates good music prickly, oedipal firebrand determined to dismantle the canon. He wherever he finds it. Significantly, Block chooses for examination is a classicist eager to acknowledge the fact that the Broadway musi- Weill’s two biggest successes. While the two shows may have con- cal indeed has a pantheon worthy of serious critical attention. formed in some respects to prevailing standards, Block correctly Following an “Overture” (“Setting the Stage”) Block divides his cites their decidedly experimental elements, the extended musical survey into two “acts,” “Before Rodgers and Hammerstein” and scenes in the three mini-operettas in Lady in the Dark, the extend- “The Broadway Musical after Oklahoma!” While Carousel is the ed compositions for Agnes de Mille’s ballets in One Touch of Venus. only Rodgers and Hammerstein show singled out for a chapter of The author traces the “process by which” fragments of A its own, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical play is invoked Kingdom for a Cow, , and Marie Galante “reemerge[d] in throughout as the genre’s Platonic ideal. But it is typical of Block’s Lady in the Dark and One Touch of Venus,” suggesting “a deeper generosity that he finds merit on both sides of the great divide of than generally acknowledged connection between the aesthetic and Oklahoma!; he writes in his introduction, “the song and working methods of the European and the American Weills.” Block musical comedies that prevailed in the 1920s and 1930s and the also places Weill’s adherence to “a gestic music based on rhythm” integrated musicals that became more influential in the 1940s and as a major, “demonstrable” link between the composer’s methods in 1950s both allow a meaningful dramatic relationship between songs Berlin and on Broadway. Provocatively, he notes that the way songs and their shows.” often interrupt the action in One Touch of Venus provides an echo of Suffused with enthusiasm, decency, and common sense, Block the epic theater aesthetic Weill developed with Brecht. “‘That’s is a nimble and exacting maestro. In a notably self-effacing style— Him’,” Block argues, “is representative of Weill’s earlier ideal by his goal is to showcase the works rather than his own analytical inge- distancing the singer from the object and providing a commentary nuity—Block accomplishes the essential task of all good criticism: on love rather than an experience of it.” Lamenting Weill’s exclu- he enables us to see the musicals with a greater depth than we could sion from recent surveys of the Broadway musical and the notable likely manage on our own, and, by fortifying us with his insights, absence of fully-staged revivals, Block sees Weill as an important encourages a return to the shows for another look. Under Block’s Broadway artist whose work fuses popular with classical tendencies baton, familiar, indeed unavoidable, topics acquire urgency and and whose bold, astutely theatrical approaches to the interaction heightened significance: for instance, the kind and degree of inte- between score and libretto had a sizeable impact on the develop- gration between a show’s music and its book, between the sung and ment of the post-Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. spoken word, between choreography and natural movement; the Although he has personally overcome the traditional academic conflicting claims of musical authenticity vs. musical accessibility; disdain for the Broadway musical, to which he was exposed as a and the pressures, emotional as well as artistic, of laboring in a com- musicology student in the early 1970s. Block has not entirely for- mercial and collaborative medium. Block guides us through each gotten it. There are lingering traces here of a keen graduate student show from the first light of initial conception, through pre-produc- trying to convince his fuddy-duddy elders that the best Broadway tion, rehearsals, and tryouts, and up to opening night and beyond, musicals really are not a guilty pleasure, a place “merely” of at each step considering why, where, and how musical material was “enchanted evenings,” but a subject worthy of sober academic added, trimmed, excised, or rearranged. He assesses how shows inquiry. Block’s writing advocates a theatrical tradition, for which, were received by their original audiences and considers the musi- as his own rigorous analysis attests, there is absolutely no need to cals’ legacies on records and discs, in revivals and critical standing. apologize. In his introduction Block notes that, until recently, books on musical theater have been written by journalists or theater histori- Foster Hirsch ans who slighted the musical contributions. Filling the gap, Block New York City brings a musicologist’s expertise to a dissection of how melody, har- 1616 Volume Volume 16,14, NumberNumber 11 Kurt Kurt WeillWeill NewsletterNewsletter

Performances

troupe in an off-Philadelphia venue. This Unfortunately, the two protagonists, The Threepenny Opera dramaturgical trick allowed for the effective Raphael Nash Thompson (Macheath) and use of 1920’s costumes and powerfully Miriam Shor (Polly), made, respectively, gruesome World War I tattered uniforms, nothing and too much of everything they Philadelphia, Pennsylvania gas masks, and related combat paraphernalia. Wilma Theater Larisa Ratnikoff ’s cos- tumes ideally comple- mented Andrei Efrimoff ’s In repertory brilliant unit set, which December 1997–January 1998 featured in-out-up-down- back-and-forth modifica- tions such as only the When and Johann Christoph technical capabilities of Pepusch wrote The Beggar’s Opera in 1728 the new Wilma could to the wildly popular operas of allow. Among the scenic Handel and to poke fun at societal flaws, highlights: an ever-visible the plot and characters offered a somewhat brick wall, painted with unsavory view of life. Weill-Brecht’s Die graffiti slogans appropri- Dreigroschenoper was an even nastier parody ate to the time (1925) and in 1928, when Germany was recovering circumstances (poverty from defeat after World War I, emerging versus riches, crime for all, from the depths of a depression, and expe- etc.); a jail cell with a frame Macheath (Raphael Nash Thompson) with Jenny (Robin Miles). Photo: Mark riencing intense protest from the Left and that burst into quick-mov- Garvin. menace from the Right. ing marquee lights when Brecht and Weill updated The Beggar’s Macheath and his jailer began a tap routine; did or sang. Macheath must dominate the Opera to 1837 to satirize the era of Queen balconies hovering over stage right and left, evening by being charismatic, sexy, and Victoria’s coronation. Blanka Zizka, Wilma where Polly and Lucy warbled their operat- seductive. None of these adjectives ic duet-parody of jealousy describes Mr. Thompson’s stage persona. I over their mutual “hus- suspect that Mr. McClendon, the Street band,” Macheath; and, Singer, who made a hit with the “ of off to stage right, the ,” might have come closer ever-present small stage to the ideal Macheath. Ms. Shor, perhaps band deftly led by Music in a desperate attempt to get some energy Director Adam Wernick. out of her partner, overacted and over-sang Unfortunately, 1925 most of the time, which is a shame, because superimposed itself awk- she has both wit and voice, as demonstrat- wardly on the plot, and ed in her side of the “poisoning scene”—a text references to the perfect foil for Ms. Pierson’s. coronation, London, and Excessive emoting, gesticulating, and other things British fre- yelling, in the style that is so typical of sit- quently jarred the theatri- uation comedy, marred much of this cal sense—and senses. Threepenny Opera. The evening also suf- Some of the cast was fered from lifelessness, which is not sur- M.C. (Forrest McClendon). Photo: Mark Garvin. quite good, especially prising given a weak central figure and too Forrest McClendon as much frivolous activity. A new, 1998 Theater’s director of The Threepenny the Street Singer cum clown-as-ringmas- American-style finale, in which Macheath Opera, updated that updating to 1925, just ter; John Seitz as a quintessentially sleazy gets a reprieve, a book deal, and a film offer, in time for the inauguration of President Peachum; Robin Miles as a sexy Jenny; brought the updating—and the show—to Coolidge in the midst of the Roaring Lynn Eldridge as a fully embodied (vocally an utterly superfluous end. Twenties, when the dollar was more as well as visually) Mrs. Peachum; and almighty than ever and the less fortunate Anthony Lawton as the distraught, bedev- Susan Gould were even less so than usual. Actually, what iling Police Chief Tiger Brown. Linda Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Ms. Zizka had in mind was more complex: Pierson, as Lucy, demonstrated a good she staged a play-within-a-play, showing voice in the duet and an acute sense of tim- the original Weill-Brecht work (set in 1837) ing in the “poisoning” scene (thanks to being presented in 1925 by a radical theater Zizka’s direction). Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 16, Number 1 17

Performances

Der Silbersee convincing, especially when measured against the standard of what an operatic ensemble is generally able to achieve. Freiburg, Germany This held true even in those places where the obviously different talents of pure actors (e.g., Alexander Saas as the Doctor Freiburger Theater and Georg Blumreiter as the Fat Country Policeman) and acting singers could not In repertory be concealed. Two of the performers managed the acting and singing demands November 1997–June 1998 with equal fluency: Sabine Hogrefe as Fennimore and Joke Kramer as Frau von As with most of his stage works, Weill Luber (memorable from her wonderfully created as part of an ongoing spiteful performance as Emma Jones in effort to liberate opera from its then-cur- the Freiburg production of rent crisis by ridding it of the dust accu- two years ago). Wolfgang Newerla, who mulated during the nineteenth century performed the role of Olim, and Rüdiger and opening it up to a broad, modern audi- Wohlers, cast as Severin, are clearly ence. Contemporary opera demanded new opera singers, yet they both handled approaches, and Weill stood at the fore- their acting roles magnificently—espe- front of those who pursued this goal by cially Newerla, whose sympathetic Severin (Rüdiger Wohlers), with Olim (Wolfgang Newerla) experimenting with different solutions in demeanor fit the role of Olim very well. in the background. Photo: Klaus Fröhlich each new work. In July 1932, while plan- Musically, however, Newerla’s excellent ning Silbersee, Weill wrote to Universal voice was not sufficiently challenged by the role. Gruber’s second trick is to insert a dras- Edition that the work was to be “in no way tic “grand pause” in the music when Olim an opera,” but “rather a work that stands Stage director Peter Gruber, on loan to the Freiburg Silbersee production from the and Severin walk to the Silver Lake. The in between genres.” The finished compo- sudden silence creates a startling effect—so sition hovers somewhere between opera Wiener Volkstheater, cut straight to the startling, in fact, that some in the audience, and straight play, but in terms of its musi- heart of the matter and focused on the role thinking that the work was over, began to cal demands, it lies closer to Aufstieg und of Fennimore. No longer the innocent, vir- applaud. The silence is intended to trans- Fall der Stadt Mahagonny than to Die ginal child who begs for entry into Olim’s form the storyline from one of realistic Dreigroschenoper. If Dreigroschenoper calls castle, she is now a plump youth whose action to one of parable. Instead of serving for a cast of singing actors coarse, heavy movements as a “real miracle,” the freezing of the lake and Mahagonny a cast of cannot be disguised by can thus be understood as a symbol—one singers who can act, there evening dress. Although she that the chorus members, who by now have seems to be no clear recipe speaks her mind, her heart is for Silbersee, save for choos- in the right place; if she taken off their masks, explain to the audi- ing a cast that can sing and spoke with the relevant ence as flesh-and-blood human beings. act. Such a cast is even dialect, she would be a true The Freiburger Theater has found in harder to assemble today “Berliner Göre” [Berlin Patrik Ringborg a conductor who is capable than in Weill’s time, howev- brat]. Instead of a femme of bringing deep understanding and feeling er, when a lively revue and fatale, we now find a meek to Weill’s music. Although Ringborg accel- folk-theater tradition could character whose superhuman erated many of the tempi daringly, he was produce talent like the quality manifests itself in, of able to achieve a fine musical sensitivity. singer and folk actor Ernst all things, an aura of submis- Similarly, he handled the play of contrasts, Busch, who played Severin sive naivete. This which he always knew how to control, in in the Magdeburg produc- “dethroned” Fennimore fits correct proportions. Overall, the Freiburg tion of Silbersee in February astonishingly well into production of Silbersee may be regarded as 1933. Kaiser’s text—his messages a successful, even exemplary, staging. The Freiburger Theater suddenly seem simple, natur- production cast all the al, and normal. “He who has musical roles with singers— to go forward just does it,” Elisabeth Schwind even Olim and Frau von Fennimore seems to say, as if Freiburg, Germany Luber, characters who sing this was the most natural just one number but must thing in the world: human maintain a strong stage need rather than mission, presence throughout. The Fennimore (Sabine Hogrefe). Photo: logical consequence rather results on stage were largely Klaus Fröhlich than miracles. 18 Volume 16, Number 1 Kurt Weill Newsletter

home by offering up “a new form to the Recordings musical theater.” (Blitzstein’s own The Cradle Will Rock of the following season would already show the effects of this new form.) Although Weill had not yet mas- tered the language, Lorenz Hart recog- nized that mastery as only a matter of time. The Otaré Pit Band At the first performance of Johnny (as Joel Cohen, conductor reported in Stanley Green’s Weill entry in The World of Musical Comedy), he leaned Erato 0630-17870-2 over the composer’s shoulder and said: “What are you trying to do, put people like me out of business?” He did not mean sim- ply that Weill was outsmarting Rodgers and Hart. Here was something new. Weill quickly reconciled a traditional European sensibility with his desire to reach a wide audience in his new environ- ment. Two years later, Knickerbocker It is difficult to imagine Kurt Weill’s tion of Johnny Johnson opened on Holiday gained 100 performances more American experience without Johnny Broadway at the Forty-Fourth Street than Johnny. Aided by the catchy Johnson, his first work for the theater writ- Theater on 19 November 1936. Despite a American vernacular of Ira Gershwin, ten entirely in the United States. At the remarkable cast and conscientious and Lady in the Dark (1941) gained 300 more. urging of his new friend, producer Cheryl laborious efforts at cutting and reworking, And with Ogden Nash’s lyrics, One Touch Crawford, Weill found in Paul Green’s it tallied only sixty-eight performances. of Venus (1943) gained 100 more still, book an ideal forum in which to contend Alongside its notable fellow shows of Weill’s biggest commercial success ever, with his two selves in the new way that his the 1936–37 Broadway season, Johnny aside from Die Dreigroschenoper. migration demanded. For the last fifteen surely had the clearest sense of the future, Johnny led the way toward the liberation years of his life, the period of his American both in terms of Weill’s career and in the of Weill’s talents. It was produced at a time exile, Weill would not only have to contin- development of American musical theater. when “folk legend” was the latest thing. ue to reject his German art music heritage Sigmund Romberg and Otto Harbach’s The word “legend” in book-writer Paul in favor of populist aspirations, he would Forbidden Melody was certainly not chal- Green’s subtitle brings to mind DuBose also need to reconcile this dichotomy with lenging when it opened in November 1936. Heyward’s “folk drama” Porgy, which a new, “American” voice in order to speak The Show Is On, which featured the music served as the basis for Gershwin’s “folk the language his Broadway and Hollywood of virtually every important Broadway opera” Porgy and Bess. But the specific audiences understood. (The failure of the composer and lyricist (Arlen and Harburg, kind of musical prevalent in Johnny is initial American production of Die Carmichael, Duke, the Gershwins, surely closer to the three political operettas Dreigroschenoper in 1933 may be significant Rodgers and Hart, and Schwartz and on books by George S. Kaufman and in this regard.) That he was able to find Dietz, among others), was a Christmas- Morrie Ryskind that the Gershwins pro- “paradise” (to use ’s time revue and surely garnered its two hun- duced in the early years of the Great word for southern California) in exile so dred-plus performances because it gave the Depression: Strike Up The Band (1927; quickly, and make it so bountiful, speaks to public exactly what it wanted. Cole rev. 1930); Of Thee I Sing (1931); and Let Weill’s remarkable aesthetic decisiveness. Porter’s Red, Hot and ! and Rodgers ‘Em Eat Cake (1933). This was a time Johnny thus stands at this last fork in the and Hart’s Babes in Arms, the latter the when supplanting comedy with higher- composer’s ongoing “Road of Promise.” most successful musical of the year, simi- browed satire was a chic way to reach While this pivotal position in Weill’s career larly catered to the public’s expectations. beyond Broadway towards the opera house. has been appreciated in one manner or But Johnny spoke to the critics if not to Johnny accomplishes all of this without another since the work’s premiere, Johnny a vast American audience. In his review of exactly knowing it. The very lack of self- is one of those pieces (found in most com- the first production, Marc Blitzstein dis- consciousness may, in part, have been what poser’s catalogs) that, while important, is covered the work’s “velvet propaganda” allowed it to come and go so quickly and somehow more often mentioned than truly not predominantly via Green’s satirical fade into oblivion once Weill began writing known. A new recording of the work, only story but in Weill’s “confounding sureness hits. In the last years of Weill’s career, its second (and the first in more than forty which outlasts transient dicta concerning though, its example reached that higher years), offers an authoritative version that bad taste and lack of it.” Many of the plane called posterity in the assuredly affords scholars, students, and performers work’s potent points were either too pro- “operatic” works Street Scene (1947) and alike the chance to reconcile ongoing his- gressive or simply premature for Weill’s (1949). torical inquiry with new performance evi- early American audience to resolve upon At the time of the first recording of dence. first exposure, and if Johnny’s European- Johnny (1956), performances of the work Mounted by the famous Group Theatre ness still engendered a sense of “experi- were dependent upon the problematic and directed by one of the Group’s ment” about it, Blitzstein did recognize (numerous cuts, transpositions, etc.) 1940 founders, Lee Strasberg, the first produc- that Weill was fitting right into his new piano-vocal score. By contrast, the new Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 16,14, Number 1 19 19

Erato recording utilizes as its basis Lys The solo singing is consistent, if unre- choices that are made concerning what is Symonette’s 1971 “complete” performing markable; the vocalists do the best they can included and what is excluded from this edition, which undertook to incorporate all with the likewise consistently lackluster recording. One laments that the producers the performable elements of the show con- lyrics. The few numbers which stand out did not go one step further and include tained in the extant manuscripts. Anyone as highlights are three of those published recorded appendices and a detailed expla- who knows anything about the theater real- by Chappell in 1936 as would-be “hit” nation of all the cut music, a procedure suc- izes that completeness and authenticity are songs: “Oh Heart of Love,” “Oh the Rio cessfully carried out on EMI’s landmark not necessarily the same thing. A compari- Grande,” and “Johnny’s Song” (retitled for recording of Show Boat. While Johnny son between David Drew’s detailed inven- publication as “To Love You And To Lose Johnson is surely no Show Boat, the tory (Kurt Weill: A Handbook, pp. 276-77) You”). American musical theater is as indebted to of the first production’s contents and the The liner notes are scholarly and inter- Kurt Weill as it is to Jerome Kern. We need liner notes accompanying this new record- esting. A single photograph from the first this whole piece! ing shows that what is here is not merely an production (showing the cannons from Act Despite its minor shortcomings, this attempt to recreate the original; decisions II’s “Song of the Guns”) is an added recording is to be applauded for the pol- have been made that sculpt a finer work bonus. The entirety of Joel Cohen’s adapt- ished way it carries out the task it sets for profile than that suggested by the extant ed text (including dialogues and stage itself. It is a splendid complement to materials. Yet in the absence of the new, directions) is reproduced in the accompa- Cohen’s substantial catalog of recordings critical edition of Johnny being prepared nying booklet, although the headings of the that feature underrepresented traditions under the auspices of the Weill Foundation, tracks indicated there do not always agree informed by lessons learned from the his- this new recording is surely the best repre- with the list of tracks at the front of the torical performance movement. As a valu- sentation of the work to date. notes. Following along with the book able supplement to the recorded history of To my ears, the instrumental passages makes listening to this seventy-five minute the American musical theater at a very are the real star of this show. The Otaré Pit recording something more dramatic than important time in its development, and as Band recreates the sound of Weill’s original merely hearing the score. an invaluable installment in the recorded orchestration with all its cabaret quirkiness. Perhaps the only element missing is the legacy of Weill’s music, it should stay in The provocative sound of the accordion, kind of conviction one tends to sense when print for years to come. To say that it needs the composer’s characteristically under- a stage production moves into the record- to be followed by an authoritative printed stated yet suave treatment of the saxo- ing studio. , John edition, and from that hopefully an inven- phone, the use of guitar and banjo, and, McGlinn, and others have demonstrated tive production, is preaching to the choir. most of all, the movie-house quality of the that recordings purely from the studio need With Johnny Johnson, Weill solidified Hammond electric organ (still fairly novel not be any less committed than those fol- his contact with America and took the first in 1936), all create the vivid sense of nos- lowing an actual production, but the pre- steps toward making it his new home. talgia necessary to appreciate Johnny as the sent recording does lack a general sense of Given Weill’s uneven reputation upon his period piece that it is. Given the limita- energy. arrival, the challenges this show issued to tions of the recording medium, the crowd A last reservation might be raised by Broadway paradigms, and the dire econom- scenes are effectively presented and the revisiting that term “complete.” ic conditions of the time, it is not at all sur- spoken material convincingly delivered. Incomplete explanation is provided for the prising that the show fared so poorly with audiences. But the critics, most notably Weill’s fellow artists, saw its value immedi- ately and welcomed him into their commu- nity. The work may come off as an Americanization of some aspects of Die Dreigroschenoper, but it is important to note that Green’s book is not Brecht’s epic. Weill’s score, with its maze of self-refer- encing that so much deserves further study, strives—if prematurely for its audi- ence—for a new sensibility in which popu- lar song and popular idioms offer liberation from the confines of Zeitoper. Yet, to say that he began here a quest that would soon Americanize him neither captures the tran- sitional nature of Johnny nor does it appre- ciate the arch of his American experience generally. The simplicity of Johnny belies its example of a compositional spirit liber- ating itself under the harshest of personal circumstances.

John Andrew Johnson Syracuse University A scene from the original 1936 production of Johnny Johnson. 20 Volume 16, Number 1 Kurt Weill Newsletter

dramaturges, directors, and actors. They Recordings will know not to follow supposed models but to confront the text afresh with every production, as they attempt to do with Bertolt Brecht Shakespeare or any classic. Of course, in such matters there is usu- ally an “on the other hand.” No actor Werke today would venture to imitate Henry Irving or Forbes Robertson in Shakespeare. Eine Auswahl Yet hearing their voices and their now anti- quated mode may remind one of values BMG 74321501942 unhappily lost and perhaps in small part recoverable; an ingredient may be detected that could, if recaptured, enrich a new per- I remember hearing a few years ago that the dered permanent by decree, nor yet by formance. (Charles Laughton enhanced works of were going to be model books. Even videotapes would not one of his interpretations by studying a available on videotape, in performances have done the job—for Samuel Beckett or recording of the abdication speech of directed by Beckett himself and with actors any other original playwright. One has Edward VIII.) he had chosen as the ideal incarnation of only to think of the history of Shakespeare True-believing Brechtians will argue his characters. The tapes, I was told, would production to see how good dramatic writ- that some of the performances recorded be distributed to producers worldwide to ing adapts itself to the theater’s ever- here are definitive, but I would aver that no be used as models for all future produc- changing conditions. Macbeth can be acted performance is definitive in a classic role tions. Thus would the whole world learn perfectly well on a proscenium stage with because the possibility always remains open how to “do Beckett” and do him “right.” our hero in the costume of an eighteenth- for a new and different performance that is The scheme (if there really was such a century aristocrat with lace at his wrists. just as good. Was Helene Weigel’s perfor- scheme) was aborted by Beckett’s final ill- Even the classic tragedies—originally per- mance as Mother Courage definitive? By ness and death. That it existed at all, albeit formed before thousands in the glorious no means: Therese Giehse was just as pow- as less than a practical plan, tells us that open air of Greece—can be highly effective erful and expressive in the role a year or so even the Beckett people were, in that era, indoors on the Bowery in New York, before after Weigel first did it. influenced by the Brecht people. Brecht an audience of a hundred or so and acted in It is important, then, that no purchaser spent the last half dozen years of his life a manner clearly influenced by modern of this set think he or she is acquiring the creating Modellbücher (Model Books) of his naturalism à la Stanislavsky. definitive of anything. principal plays. These were to be sent out These reflections were to producers to tell them how to “do it prompted by Bertolt Brecht: right.” Werke, eine Auswahl, twenty The age of videotapes had not yet CDs issued in a boxed set by arrived, and audio materials were circulat- BMG. Ten of the twenty ed only on 78s or LPs. Sometimes a whole are recordings of Berliner play would be made available on such discs: Ensemble productions of for instance, Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar plays: namely, Frau Carrar, with Helene Weigel in the title role. But if Leben des Galilei, Mutter you wanted, say, Mutter Courage und ihre Courage, Der kaukasische Kinder in model form, it was to Brecht’s Kreidekreis, Die Tage der model book that you had to go. A feature Commune, and Herr Puntila film of Mutter Courage was also made but und sein Knecht Matti. I was not held by the orthodox to be a model, defy anyone, in these days of even though it was used as such by Jerome abundant video cassettes, to Robbins as late as 1963 for the Broadway sit through all these audio production. performances. The musical Robbins’s experience is instructive. He bits are certainly a refresh- told me afterwards that he wished he had ing interruption, but the not consulted the film but had operated seemingly endless prose will freely, as with a new work about whose surely send even the most background he knew nothing. I myself ardent Brechtian to sleep in began to rethink the whole matter of short order. I suppose these Brecht performance. Brecht’s Modell- texts are presented here bücher approach—producing the plays mainly for purposes of con- himself and documenting the results—was sultation rather than enter- originally quite justified. But there was a tainment, yet I predict that fundamental flaw in the thinking. A mode the consulters will be anti- Bertolt Brecht in 1927. Photo: Konrad Ressler. of theatrical production cannot be ren- quarians and scholars, not Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 16, Number 1 21

(and broadcast in Canada) on the life of editorial point of view. However, it is in . It is an outright Communist German only and offers no Brecht texts. film, beginning and ending with the (Instead, an advertisement appears for the Brecht-Eisler song Lob des Kommunismus works as published by Suhrkamp! In this, and with a reverent rendition of the GDR’s BMG is behaving no worse than many national anthem—an Eisler composition— other CD companies.) I treasure my old in the middle. There is nothing so blatant Mahagonny LPs not least because included in the BMG set, but one must not take as with them is the complete German text and accidental that, where so many major works a very exact translation, both an enormous are missing, there are examples of Party boon to the listener. (Because Brecht was hackwork (Frau Carrar) and purely ideo- always issuing different versions of his logical ardor (parts of the Communist plays, one may not otherwise have access to Manifesto versified). the text in the same form.) Among major works not included are: As for the sonic quality of these CDs, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Der one has become aware in the past few years gute Mensch von Sezuan, and all the great that old recordings are not always better on products of Brecht’s youth, , Im CD. To be sure, the crackle and other irrel- Dickicht der Städte, Leben Eduards des evant noise are removed, but so, quite Zweiten von England, even Mann ist Mann often, is some of the sound of the music. (which the performed My listening was not done on first-rate as early as thirty years ago). A television equipment, but suffice it to say that I have film exists of Baal—a major work, with no complaints. Fassbinder in the title role—but no part of Let’s not be above nostalgia or even sen- Helene Weigel in a 1949 Berliner Ensemble produc- this is here either. The impression given timentality. Nothing in this field is more tion of Mutter Courage. throughout the series is that of Eisler play- fun to listen to than the earliest recordings ing a larger role than Kurt Weill. Eisler’s of Dreigroschenoper songs, some of which More than forty years have passed since music for Die Tage der Commune—a minor are now on one of these CDs. Though I do Brecht died. Can we, after all this time, work, I think—is here in its entirety while not believe productions should be used as hope that such a Selected Works project Die Dreigroschenoper is represented only by models, I am often tempted to believe that would give us the best performances, ever a group of songs. the early rendering of the songs should be. or anywhere, of what some competent This collection does not incorporate all “” is, to my ears, rendered judge deems the very best of Brecht? Well, or even most of the finer recordings of the far better by Lenya than by Teresa Stratas, no, because not all such items have been past. There is not nearly enough Lotte and I have often cited the singing of Trude recorded, and the rights to those that have Lenya here. At least her magnificent solo Hesterberg (not represented in the present may be unavailable or too expensive. There rendering of Happy End (1960, set, however) as a kind of model to students is also an ideological barrier. Among the Columbia/Philips) should be included and singers. I must relent. In the end, per- credits cited in the album are thanks for (even though the prose dialogue of the formance models must not be stabilized; support from Barbara Schall-Brecht, the show is not Brecht’s), as should her Sieben they must develop and change with the company over which she has long had Todsünden (1956, Columbia/Philips). Nor changing times. something more than just influence is a more recent generation of performers (Berliner Ensemble), and her German pub- represented: no Teresa Stratas, no Ute lisher (Suhrkamp Verlag). That support Lemper. If an English-language item could was a sine qua non because Brecht’s works be used, as is Brecht’s testimony before the New York City are still under copyright in Germany, and House Un-American Activities his heirs guard them hyperactively, forbid- Committee, then at least Charles ding some performances altogether and Laughton’s voice should be heard (from micro-managing those that they allow. To Galileo). From abundant French sources some degree their choices go by personal the LP of Schweyk im zweiten Weltkrieg caprice and favoritism but, in Germany could well have been chosen (another Eisler especially, there is politics in them: Bertolt score, but this one possibly his very best). Brecht’s own politics for the most part, but A Kurt Weill landmark in my experience politics that in 1998 will certainly seem was ’s early recording dated even to those who do not consider (1931) of Kleine Dreigroschenmusik. We them pestiferous. older Brechtians could keep this game Soviet survives in going forever, although it is unfair. Germany in the form of Leninism-suppos- Anthologists must work with their own edly-uncontaminated-by-. On prejudices and predilections, not other this basis, Brecht’s politics survive the people’s. German Democratic Republic, whose lead- A booklet of more than eighty pages ers stand accused of letting Leninism accompanies this collection, providing a lot down, nothing more. A film has been made of good information besides presenting the 22 Volume 16, Number 1 Kurt Weill Newsletter

out of four-voice fugues and chaconnes, Recordings seems more fixated upon establishing his classical credentials than upon achieving an original musical utterance. Trying to prove String Quartet No. 1, Opus 8 a -classical synthesis from this collec- tion of pieces is on shaky ground from the very start. Brodsky Quartet Stylistically, Weill’s quartet lies between Stravinsky and Brubeck. The liquidation Silva Classics SILKD 6014 of a common formal scheme of separate movements in favor of strongly individual Recording also includes: Dave Brubeck, Chromatic movement characters within an overall for- Fantasy and , Concertino. mal concept already signals expressive compression and restraint. However, in the “Choralphantasie” finale (newly composed at the wish of Busoni for the first perfor- mance in 1923) the piece still falls back upon the romanticizing pathos of the big compositional gesture. This indecisiveness is endearing, but the piece stands awkward- Weill’s not very extensive chamber music It is no wonder that the discography of ly in the middle of the road between ironic oeuvre belongs to the first phase of his Weill’s chamber music has turned out to be distance and a conjuration of Baroque career. The six-year period encompassing correspondingly slender. For many years monumentality. In this sense it is utterly it is marked by the search for an indepen- the only recording of either quartet was by indebted to Busoni’s concept of the Junge dent artistic perspective, but shows the the Sequoia Quartet (Nonesuch 79071). Klassizität. influence of his teachers, above all But recently, two releases including the The Brodsky Quartet does not seem Ferruccio Busoni. Weill joined Busoni’s String Quartet, op. 8 have appeared: one by comfortable with this difficult early work. master class in 1921 after breaking off his the Brandis Quartet (Nimbus NI 5410) Their approach here is less coherent than instruction at the conservative Berlin includes quartets from the 1920s by that demonstrated in their performance of Hochschule für Musik and leaving the city Hindemith and Schulhoff; the other, the the other two pieces, especially with respect for his first job as a conductor in present recording, matches Weill’s quartet to the mediation of the piece’s conflicting Lüdenscheid. with Stravinsky’s popular Concertino expressive levels. A careful calculation of The catalog of extant chamber music (1920) and Dave Brubeck’s 1996 composi- how to emphasize the contrasts in move- starts with the still unpublished String tion Chromatic Fantasy. This compilation ment character—from which the very idea Quartet in B Minor (1918), begun under of three compositions, spanning three of the work (or its ideal) emerges—might the tutelage of Engelbert Humperdinck at quarters of a century and encompassing the very well lead to a decision to sharpen those the Hochschule. It ends with Frauentanz development from Neoclassicism to contrasts. But the Brodsky inclines toward (1924), which may be considered not only , is unified by two thematic a certain neutrality, especially in terms of a one of the best of Weill’s early works but ideas: the crossover between jazz and clas- noticeable leveling of dynamic contrast. also one of the most original documents of sical idioms, and tribute to J.S. Bach, which Though the quartet plays on a high musical the beginning of the Neue Sachlichkeit in all three compositions acknowledge level and is aided by a technically first-class the music of the Weimar Republic. In through the use of chorales. recording, this performance falls short of a between lie the Cello Sonata (1920) and the It is an open question whether, as Erik superlative level of intensity and engage- String Quartet, op. 8 (1922–23), which Levi suggests in the program booklet, these ment. exhibit a wide range of expressive empha- three distinctively individual works show sis, from late Romantic to a any real aesthetic correlation that goes demeanor—both aggressive and playful— beyond compositional technique. Even Wolfgang Rathert of simplicity and dissonant severity. The upon an initial hearing, Brubeck’s compo- Hochschule der Künste, Berlin youthful ferment of the early compositions sition sounds far more eclectic than the makes them as problematic to perform as other two. What is more, it has a tendency they are fascinating to consider; finding the toward epic breadth that Weill and espe- correctly balanced approach to them is cially Stravinsky had already conquered more difficult than it is for the later mas- earlier in the century. Stravinsky’s terworks. Weill never achieved the same Concertino (which the Brodsky Quartet measure of sureness in his instrumental conveys with appropriate precision and concert music that he did with his mature lack of pretension) engages in a much wit- compositions written for the musical the- tier and more radical discourse with Bach’s ater, his natural element. (A comparison counterpoint than does the Brubeck, in with the contemporaneous chamber works spite of the latter’s skillfulness and some- of Hindemith or even Krenek demon- what long-winded dramaturgy. The jazz strates this clearly.) giant Brubeck, in his effortless spinning Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 16, Number 1 23

Indeed, an inattentive listener might Recordings assume that the Concerto’s opening is merely another section of the cantata, so Der neue Orpheus similar is the idiom of both works. The Even though these stylistic insertions are Concerto, however, remains firmly rooted Concerto for Violin and both motivated and justified by Iwan Goll’s in the more strident language of art music Wind Instruments surreal text, the effect is not wholly con- in the 1920s, and Weill’s solid command of vincing. Beyond the use of the dance that expressive vocabulary has earned this rhythms, Weill also drew on elements of work a small but growing place in the Rheinische Philharmonie the cantata, solo concerto, and opera in this repertoire since its premiere in 1925. Carole Farley, ; Michael transitional work, and the conflation of This ASV recording, which features the these disparate genres only compounds the same cast of performers (minus Farley) as Guttman, violin; José Serebrier, con- problems posed by Weill’s diverse musical for Der neue Orpheus, is the fourteenth ductor language. It is therefore not surprising that commercial release of Weill’s Concerto and Kim Kowalke, in his book Kurt Weill in one of eight currently available in the latest ASV CD DCA 987 Europe, judged Der neue Orpheus to be “a Schwann Opus catalog. Among its competi- tentative and somewhat unsuccessful juxta- tors is another new release on the Decca (Recording also includes two selections from Der position of old and new.” label, which features soloist Chantal Juillet Silbersee: “Fennimores Lied” and “Ballade von Cäsars Tod”; Whatever its perceived shortcomings, playing violin concertos by Weill, and two selections from Street Scene: “A Boy Like You” and Der neue Orpheus demands the attention of Korngold, and Krenek, accompanied by “Somehow I Never Could Believe.”) anyone interested in the origins of Weill’s the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin later methods. Iwan Goll’s poem reworks under . This second CD is Concerto for Violin and the classic legend into a search by an early part of the series “Entartete Musik: Music twentieth-century Orpheus for his prosti- Suppressed by the Third Reich.” Wind Instruments tute Eurydice. This may be a bit too Anyone choosing between just these self-consciously “modern” for late twenti- two recordings of Weill’s Concerto will be Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin eth-century sensibilities, but Weill’s music drawn immediately to the performance by is never so heavy-handed or world-weary as Guttman and Serebrier, for they are easily Chantal Juillet, violin; John Mauceri, Goll’s text. If anything, Weill’s music, on a the more self-assured. Curiously, even conductor moment-to-moment basis, exhibits an though the total time of the Juillet– assurance of technique that can be quite Mauceri performance is shorter by two Decca 452 481-2 engaging on first acquaintance and also minutes, their playing lacks intensity and wears well with repeated hearings. gives the impression of an overly cautious (Recording also includes Ernst Krenek’s Violin Concerto It is therefore surprising to learn that a reading, even at their faster tempos. No. 1, op. 29 and Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin new ASV release is the first-ever commer- Juillet’s tone, moreover, is not very big, and Concerto in D major, op. 35.) cial recording of Weill’s cantata, and that is she often fails to convey the lyricism of reason enough to welcome it. The perfor- Weill’s solo lines, especially in the first “Now it has seized me again. mance is credible, but not definitive. movement. Guttman, in contrast, has a I’m buried in this new opera, and I leave Carole Farley’s voice is perhaps too operat- more robust sound, and he plays with a the house only to take care of the most nec- ic at times, and her diction, although gen- confidence that imbues this concerto with essary everyday matters. I must master a erally good, is sometimes lost in her vibra- the intensity and jauntiness that it needs. type of expression that is still new to me. to. Michael Guttman provides strong sup- Despite the weaknesses of Juillet’s perfor- To my satisfaction, I can now say that—as port with his playing of the demanding mance, the Decca release will probably still I’ve already discovered in Der neue passages for solo violin that lead into and attract buyers simply because it includes Orpheus—I’m gradually forging ahead help to define the various moods of the the first ever commercial recording of toward ‘my real self ’; my music is becom- seven variations. The playing of the Krenek’s Concerto. ing much more confident, much freer, Rheinische Philharmonie under José The ASV release also includes four lighter—and simpler.” Serebrier is likewise good without being vocal excerpts: two from Der Silbersee, In this frequently quoted passage from compelling; only the most critical listeners Weill’s last work completed in Germany, an undated letter to his parents (written in will find anything about which they can and two from his American opera Street 1925), Kurt Weill identified two pivotal possibly complain. In short, those who Scene. As with the cantata, Farley’s voice is works of his early years. The opera Royal must have Der neue Orpheus will not be dis- too big for my taste in the German excerpts Palace was significant as the first successful appointed by the performance, while any- but is better suited to the English. The real instance of the synthesis of popular and one who passes on this disc need not worry reason for buying the ASV disc, however, serious elements that would define Weill’s that he or she has missed a hidden gem. remains Der neue Orpheus and also mature style. The other major work on this CD, Guttman’s solid performance of the In its immediate predecessor, Der neue Weill’s Concerto for Violin and Wind Concerto for Violin. The Decca CD is Orpheus, however, the “simpler” elements Instruments, op. 12, predates Der neue strictly for those who want the Krenek are not so much assimilated as they are Orpheus by less than two years, and the Concerto or who are obsessive collectors of merely asserted. Two outer sections redo- close relationship of these two works is Weill’s music. lent of Weill’s musical practices of the strikingly evident in this release. Even mid-1920s frame a series of seven varia- though the Concerto follows the cantata on Scott Warfield tions in the rhythms of popular dances. the CD, there is no sense of regression. Nebraska Wesleyan University NEWSLETTER RESPONSE FORM

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No. of copies Title Price Total Books ______Drew. Kurt Weill: A Handbook. Faber, 1987. $50.00 ______Geuen. Von der Zeitoper zur Broadway Opera. Sonus, 1997. $40.00 ______A Guide to the Weill-Lenya Research Center. $5.00 ______Huynh, trans. and ed. Kurt Weill de Berlin à Broadway. Plume, 1993. $30.00 ______Kortländer, Meiszies, Farneth, eds. Vom Kurfürstendamm zum Broadway: Kurt Weill (1900-1950). Droste, 1990. $18.00 ______Kowalke, ed. A New Orpheus: Essays on Kurt Weill. Yale, 1986. $28.50 ______$18.00(Pbk.) ______Kowalke and Edler, eds. A Stranger Here Myself: Kurt Weill Studien. Olms Verlag, 1993. $40.00 ______Schebera. Kurt Weill: An Illustrated Life. Yale, 1995. $37.50 ______Taylor. Kurt Weill: Composer in a Divided World. Northeastern, 1991. $18.00(Pbk) ______Weill. (When You Speak Love): The Letters of Kurt Weill and . California, 1996. $39.95 ______Music ______Down in the Valley. Piano-vocal score. Schirmer. $18.00 ______Four Walt Whitman Songs. Piano-vocal score. EAMC. $12.95 ______Kurt Weill: Broadway & Hollywood. Hal Leonard. $15.95 ______Lady in the Dark. Piano-vocal score. Chappell. $40.00 ______Lost in the Stars. Piano-vocal score. Chappell. $40.00 ______“Lost in the Stars” (song). Choral arrangement. Marc Andreu. $2.25 ______One Touch of Venus. Piano-vocal score (selections). TRO. $8.95 ______“.” Choral arrangement. Marc Andreu. $1.95 ______Street Scene. Libretto. Chappell. $7.50 ______Street Scene. Piano-vocal score. Chappell. $35.00 ______The Threepenny Opera. Songs; Blitzstein. Warner. $11.95 ______Unknown Kurt Weill. For voice and piano. EAMC. $19.95 ______

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