Kurt Weill in Berlin

KURT WEILL IN BERLIN - PETER SANDlOFF AND HIS ORCHESTRA American-born Peter Sandloff grew up in Germany, where he is well known as a conductor-orchestrator for theatre, films, radio, and television. His witty, atmospheric arrangements of these songs from Kurt Weill's stage works were recorded in Berlin under the personal supervision of Lotte Lenya.

SIDE 1 SIDE 2 Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Th e Rise and Fall Dre igroschen -Oper: Moritat (Ballad of Mack the Knife ) of the City Mahagonny): Wie man sich bettet so liegt man Dreigroschen-Oper: Kanonen-Song (Army Song) (As you make your bed , so wil l yor lie) Mahagonny: Zithermelod ie und Song von Mandelay Berliner Requiem : Zu Potsdam unter Jen Eichen Happy End : Matrosen-Tango (Sailors' Tango) Dreigroschen -Oper (The Threepenny Opera): Tango-Ballad Die Petroleum lnseln : Das Lied von den braunen lnseln Konjunktur: Die Muschel von Margate Dreigroschen -Oper: Mond iibe r Soh o (Love Song) Happy End : Der kle ine Leutnant des lieben Gottes Mahagonny : Wie man si ch bettet so liegt man Drei groschen -Oper: Barba ra-Song

Happy End : Surabaja-Jonny P hoto of Kurt Weill taken in 1950 in e w York ( Karsh of Ottawa ! . Happy End: Bilbao -Song DrawinJ! from the original program of th e fi lm DreigTo st he>~ - 07Jer .

11'\ THE CONSTANTLY CHANG! l'\G HISTORY of composers' But now the wh eel of for tune has t urned again. Under nature of things, can h ave little in common with the type 1·eputations, there is no stranger case tha n t hat of Kurt t he g uida nce of Weill 's w idow, the distinguished actr ess of voice-a nd-accompaniment texture which Weill handled Weill. Born in 1900, he studied with Hum perdinck and and diseuse Lotte Lenya, a wide audience in Amer ica has so brillia ntly. The majority of these a rra ngements keep Bu,.;on i, a nd by h is twenty-seventh year was gener ally joyfully discovered the German works of Weill. A pa r allel qu ite close to t he spirit, if not t he form, of the originals. recognized as one of the th ree leaders of t he arant-gardc up ~ u r ge of intere t has taken place in Central E urope. All T he exceptions a re t he "Barbar a-Song;• " Surabaja-J onny;• in Ge r man~ · . His m usic was t hen as "spE'ciali zed" as that We ill 's operas a nd theatre works 1 apart from a few p ieces the " Moritat:• the " Kanonen-Song;• and " Das Lied von den of his colleagues H indemit h and Krenek. But within two destroyed by the razis 1 have been redved- most notably braunen Inseln;• all of which are ver y f ree varia tions on .\·ear he had evolved a h ighly pe1·sonal style which com­ Tile T II reepenny 0 pera 1 Dreig1·u sch en-Oper ), and his influ­ Weill's or iginal composit ions. l>ined tradit ional "classical" harmony with t he accents of ence on the younger generation of musicians is already The piece, included in Sandloff' s selection are rem a rk­ a ne\\. type of popula r song. A lthough he was condemned evident. able testimony to the var iety of feeling a nd inflection a,.; a de:se rter by some of his more super fi ciall y progressi\·e T he reasons for t h is are wo rth considering. Although which Weill achieved within the na r row confines of his c.:olleagues, his work between 1928 and 1933 was as original not in any way a man of the pa t, Wei ll found a unique song-forms. For t he way t hese m usical images refl ect t he a,: an.vthing written at that time. and im peccably precise form for expressing the attit udes cont rasts and contradictions of h uma n life shows the h and Together with Bert B1·echt, the leading Germ an writer of Romanticism. His m usic implie a predominantly tragic of a real inaster and the vision of a real artist. of his generation, vVei ll fo rmulated a new type of oper a, \· iew of t he world, though t he tears may be hidden and the many works he wrote for the stage 1 including behind a mask of irony. In this, Weill is m uch closer to ALSO ON ANGEL RECORDS three ful l-length operas and four s hor ter ones 1 established Gustav Mahler I whose music he much adm ired l and to him as the most prominent German theatre composer the L ieder writers than he :s to the black-and-white world AT THE DROP OF A HAT (New A merican Version) (S)35797 ~inc:e Richa rd Straus:;. Rut within a few da~ · s of H itler's of the modern popular song. It is quite wrong to suppose Michael F lande1·s a nd Donald Swann ascension to powe1· in 193:1, all of vVei ll's works were t hat he used foxtrot, tango, or other modern rhythms in HOFFNUNG INTERPLANETARY MUSIC FESTIVAL ... (S) 35800 banned, and he was forced to flee for h is life. He eventu­ his music as an imitation of, or pa1·ody of, American SADLER'S WELLS BALLET SILVER JUBILEE ...... tS)35521 all~- settled in America, whe re he died in 1950. dance m usic. The purpose is much more serious. The Royal Opera H ouse Orchestr a, Covent Garden, Robert Irving, Conductor Tn America, Wei ll found a co mp l ete!~· new career for mysterious tensions of his harmony would tell us that Prefi:< ( S) indicates a1milnbility in s tereo himself as a notable composer for B1 · oadwa~·. Believing even were it not for the very searchin g quality of the \'erse which he set. that the w01·ks which had brought him such fame in his ANGEL R ECO R DS N EW Y ORK C IT Y nati\·e land were no longer releYant to his new em·iron­ The fourteen songs b~· Wei ll a rra nged by Peter Sandloff ment, he did little to encourage their performance, and for this recording were all composed between 1928 and continued his own musical de\·elopment on quite diffe rent 1930. All but two were settings of texts by B recht. It is lines: J\nickerhocker H oliday. Lady in til e Darlc, One important to r emember that these are nothing more nor Touch of l'£'nus . Street Scene, and Lost in tile Stars. By less than solo or duet songs in sim ple stroph ic form. They 1%0 the world had almost forgotten his one-ti me reputa­ J'ep resent only one side of Brecht and Weill 's work , and tion as an important German composer - a reputation that cannot suggest anything of the operatic style which the had been acknowledged by such figures as Furtwangler two men e\·olved. We should also remem ber that we are and Bruno Walter. listening to instrumental arrangement which, in the 35727