120831bk Weill:MASTER BOOK 5/4/07 9:12 PM Page 8 The Naxos Historical labels aim to make available the greatest recordings of the history of recorded music, in the best and truest sound that contemporary technology can provide. To achieve this aim, Naxos has engaged a number of respected restorers who have the dedication, skill and experience to produce restorations that have set new standards in the field of historical recordings. Also available from Naxos Nostalgia … 8.120776 8.120800 8.120803 8.120828 8.120829 8.120830 These titles are not for retail sale in the USA 8 8.120831 120831bk Weill:MASTER BOOK 5/4/07 9:12 PM Page 2 19. Pirate Jenny 4:04 20. Mack The Knife (A Theme From The MACK THE KNIFE From The Threepenny Opera Threepenny Opera) 3:24 (Kurt Weill–Bertolt Brecht–Marc Blitzstein) (Kurt Weill–Bertolt Brecht–Marc Blitzstein) Songs of KURT WEILL Lotte Lenya, orchestra conducted by Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars Original 1929–1956 Recordings Samuel Matlowsky Columbia 40587, mx CO 53818-1 MGM E 3121, mx 54-MG-560 Recorded 28 September 1955, New York Two continents, two careers, two totally different cycle which they called Mahagonny. Its Recorded March 1954, New York styles of music. There’s only one 20th century harmonic dissonances and outspoken political Sung in English except tracks 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6 in German; track 15 instrumental composer who fits that definition: Kurt Weill. sentiments made it a succès de scandale and This strange, idiosyncratic man could deliver cemented the partnership of Brecht and Weill. Transfers & Production: David Lennick • Digital Restoration: Graham Newton everything from the tinny, rasping decadence of On 31 August 1928, at Berlin’s Original recordings from the collections of David Lennick, Peter Doyle, James Kidd & Houston Maples Weimar Germany to the lush showbiz Schiffbauerdamm Theatre, they premiered their romanticism of 1940s Broadway. next work, The Threepenny Opera, based on Producer’s Note His songs have been ‘covered’ by everyone John Gay’s classic, The Beggar’s Opera. As might be expected, the earlier recordings in this collection are exceedingly rare. Some were from Bobby Darin to The Doors and some of his Conceived in haste and executed in discord, eight-inch discs, known to exist only in a few pressings. The recordings made by Lotte Lenya and greatest hits have come from the least likely of everyone thought it was going to be a huge Kurt Weill for the small Bost label were poorly recorded and pressed on low-grade wartime shellac. sources. disaster. But the audiences adored it, especially Walter Huston made two commercial recordings of September Song, six years apart. The lyrics Call him a true original – a fact that the Die Moritat von Mackie Messer (The Ballad differed sufficiently that it was felt desirable to include both recordings, editing slightly to eliminate twenty wildly disparate selections on this Of Mack The Knife), a number they added at repetition. The earlier Brunswick recording is heard in its entirety. recording prove time and time again. the eleventh hour to appease the leading man’s David Lennick, 2007 He was born in Dessau, Germany, on desire for a ‘big’ entrance. 2 March 1900, into a religious Jewish family, the Brecht himself sings it on this recording, son of a cantor. By the time he was twelve, he along with another number best translated as was already composing serious musical works The Ballad Of The Futility Of All Human and by the age of 26 he had dazzled the musical Endeavour. Establishment with his setting of Georg Kaiser’s The new hot duo continued to turn out Der Protagonist. successful works, including 1929’s Happy End It looked like Weill was going to be one of and, in 1930, a full-scale operatic version of their the next great serious voices in German music, earlier Mahagonny song-cycle, this one called but then his life took a detour from which it The Rise And Fall Of The State Of Mahagonny. never returned. Weill was by now married to the unique In 1927, the Baden-Baden music festival put song-stylist, Lotte Lenya, of whom he once said him together with the socialist playwright ‘Everything I compose, I hear Lenya singing in Bertolt Brecht to write a one-act theatrical song- my inner ear’. Original monochrome photo of Kurt Weill from the Tully Potter Collection 2 8.120831 8.120831 7 120831bk Weill:MASTER BOOK 5/4/07 9:12 PM Page 6 9. Tchaikovsky (And Other Russians) 14. Speak Low (II) 3:17 She is heard on this recording in a selection great actor Walter Huston (playing tyrannical 3:18 From One Touch Of Venus of songs from those early days, including the Peter Stuyvesant) to sing after hearing him on a From Lady in the Dark (Kurt Weill–Ogden Nash) classic Surabaya Johnny from Happy End and radio broadcast. (Kurt Weill–Ira Gershwin) Mary Martin & Kenny Baker; orchestra the Alabama Song from Mahagonny, covered A few years later, in 1941, Weill found Danny Kaye with orchestra & chorus conducted by Maurice Abravanel by The Doors on their first album. (And yes, the himself involved with the glitziest of Broadway conducted by Maurice Abravanel Decca 23296, mx 71493-A English lyrics were originally written by Brecht.) vehicles. Playwright Moss Hart, at the peak of Columbia 36025, mx CO 29836-1 Recorded 7 November 1943, New York Art as popular and yet as politically as his success, wanted to explore the phenomenon Recorded 28 January 1941, New York 15. Moderato Assai From The unsettling as that which Brecht and Weill of psychoanalysis. He picked Gertrude Lawrence 10. The Saga Of Jenny 3:14 Threepenny Opera 2:16 created was not likely to find favour with the as his star, asked Ira Gershwin to provide the From Lady In The Dark (Kurt Weill, arr. Stefan Frenkel) Third Reich when it came to power in 1933. lyrics and turned to Weill for the music. (Kurt Weill–Ira Gershwin) Jascha Heifetz, violin; Emanuel Bay, piano In fact, when the newly-elected government The resulting product, Lady In The Dark, Gertrude Lawrence; orchestra & chorus Decca DL 8521, mx W 73199 decided to put together an exhibit of the kind of was one of the biggest hits of the 1940s. It gave conducted by Leonard Joy Recorded 30 November 1945, New York ‘decadent art’ they wanted stopped, a Lawrence two solid-gold showstoppers in My Victor 27330, mx BS 060683-1 16. Moon-Faced, Starry-Eyed 3:05 gramophone playing Die Moritat von Mackie Ship and The Saga Of Jenny, as well as Recorded 23 February 1941, New York From Street Scene Messer was the central exhibit. allowing a young man named Danny Kaye the 11. Lost In The Stars 3:01 (Kurt Weill–Langston Hughes) The combination of his Jewish heritage and opportunity to perform theatrical larceny with From Ulysses Africanus & Lost In The Stars Benny Goodman & His Orchestra; his left-wing politics made Weill an easy target his tongue-twisting litany of Russian composers (Kurt Weill–Maxwell Anderson) Johnny Mercer, vocal for the Nazis and so he fled the country, first to called Tchaikovsky. Lotte Lenya with Kurt Weill, piano Capitol 376, mx 1619-4 Paris, and then to America. By 1943, Weill’s transformation was Bost 5017, mx 1240 Recorded 30 January, 1947, Hollywood His initial work in his adopted country, a complete. The score he provided for One Touch Recorded c. 1942, New York 17. Here I’ll Stay 3:15 1936 anti-war musical called Johnny Johnson, Of Venus (to lyrics by comic poet Ogden Nash) 12. Lover Man (Trouble Man) 2:50 From Love Life didn’t receive a positive greeting from the press was as smoothly sophisticated and redolent of From Ulysses Africanus & Lost In The Stars (Kurt Weill–Alan Jay Lerner) or public and indeed, sounded a lot like the Manhattan as anything a native-born composer (Kurt Weill–Maxwell Anderson) Buddy Clark with Mitchell Ayres’ Orchestra material he had written with Brecht in Germany. could have provided. Lotte Lenya with Kurt Weill, piano & Chorus But two years later, by 1938, things had Speak Low, performed here both by the Bost 5017, mx 1235-B Columbia 38294, mx CO 38583-1 changed. He collaborated with popular composer himself as well as by Mary Martin and Recorded c. 1942, New York Recorded 20 December 1947, New York playwright Maxwell Anderson on a story about Kenny Baker of the original cast, is a supreme 13. Speak Low (I) 2:04 18. Green-Up Time 2:41 the early days of Manhattan called illustration of Weill at his most cosmopolitan. From One Touch Of Venus From Love Life Knickerbocker Holiday. While still bearing the But having proven that he could conquer (Kurt Weill–Ogden Nash) (Kurt Weill–Alan Jay Lerner) distinctive Weill flavour, it was unquestionably the Broadway musical as well as the German Kurt Weill, vocal & piano Greta Keller with Cy Walter, piano & an American score. stage (as the 1945 Jascha Heifetz recording of Heritage H-0051 rhythm section It also gave birth to one of the great classic the Moderato Assai from The Threepenny From demo recording c. 1942, New York Atlantic ALS 405, mx ALP11289 Recording January 1956, New York musical theatre numbers, a bittersweet ode Opera reminds us again of his earlier origins) a called September Song they wrote for the talent as restless as Weill’s had to move on. His 6 8.120831 8.120831 3 120831bk Weill:MASTER BOOK 5/4/07 9:12 PM Page 4 final three American works each had a unique Weill died of a sudden heart attack on 1.