Conference cookie::notes$archive:cd_v1

840.0. "Kurt Weill on CD" by BAVIKI::GOOD (Michael Good) Mon Aug 03 1987 14:48

    I've recently purchased three CD's of music by Kurt Weill: The
    Threepenny Opera, Johnny Johnson, and Silverlake.
    
    (Brief introduction to Kurt Weill: Born in Germany in 1900, died in the
    USA in 1950.  He's best known for his musical theater works, both in
    Berlin and on Broadway.  He is especially well known for his
    collaborations with Bertolt Brecht, including The Threepenny Opera and
    The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.  The song "Mack the Knife"
    comes from The Threepenny Opera.  Weill left Germany in 1933 soon after
    Hitler came to power, spent a couple years in France, and then
    emigrated to the USA.  His wife, Lotte Lenya, outlived him by over
    30 years and is the best-known interpreter of his music.)
    
    The Threepenny Opera and Johnny Johnson CD's are on the Polydor label. 
    These are reissues of 1950's mono recordings.  If good audio quality is
    very important to you, avoid these discs - the sound is harsh and the
    mix isn't so great.  The music is excellent, especially in Threepenny
    Opera, and the performances are OK.   Threepenny Opera is Weill's
    most well-known work, and is performed here in Marc Blitztein's English
    adaptation.  Johnny Johnson was Weill's first American musical.
    Both of these works deserve better recordings, but I don't know of any
    on CD.  For now they will do for the Weill fan.
    
    Silverlake is an adaptation of Der Silbersee, the last work Weill
    composed in Germany.  The original book by Kaiser was discarded and
    replaced by a new book by Hugh Wheeler and new lyrics by Lys Symonette. 
    Nearly all of the music from Der Silbersee is included, but it is
    re-ordered and assigned to different characters.  Incidental music from
    other Weill works is included as background music for spoken dialogue. 
    The effect of all these changes is to produce a new theater piece, 2
    hours shorter than the original, yet retaining almost all of the
    original music as well as the basic story line.  A reasonably good deal
    for the composer but not for the playwright.
    
    I've played the orchestral suite from Der Silbersee (that was actually
    my introduction to the music of Weill), so I was familiar with the
    music out of context.  This is still out-of-context from the original
    work, but this hybrid works quite well.  There is a lot of beautiful
    music here, at the same level (or higher) than The Threepenny Opera.
    This recording has whetted my curiosity even more for the original Der
    Silbersee, but succeeds quite well on its own terms for now.
    
    The sound on this 2-CD set is excellent.  They could have put Act I on
    one CD and Act II on another, but chose instead to make two CD's of nearly
    equal length by breaking up Act I.  There is also no indexing, which is
    a shame since the tracks are divided by scene instead of by song.
    Still, the music, the performance, and the sound makes this a very
    recommendable recording.
    
    For other Weill CD's, I know of 2 discs of songs sung by Teresa
    Stratas, a disc of Quodlibet, and the rock-oriented compilation called
    Lost in the Stars.  Does anyone know of other Weill CD's that are
    available?
    
    Michael

    Silverlake is on the Nonesuch label and is a DDD recording.

    Nice to see another Kurt Weill enthusiest.
    
    I have Johnny Johnson and the Threepenny Opera; welcome
    additions to my Weill collection of both vinyl and CD.
    I have been searching for Silverlake for sometime now.
    I guess I'll have to order it.
    
    Also on the nonesuch label is Recordare (Lamentations of
    Jeremiah), I forget the opus number.  Excellant recording
    by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.  This piece was written
    while Weill was still in Germany but was lost and never
    performed until around '82/'83.  
    
    It is a very interesting piece in that it is totally different
    than anything that Weill did for the theatre.  A very dramatic
    piece that uses 20th century compositional techniques ala
    Schoenberg.  Many threads of melodic and harmonic structures
    are interwoven to make for a very stark sound.  The quality
    of the CD is excellant.  It gets a very high recommendation
    from me.
    
    =ken

I have the Kurt Weill compilation "Lost in the Stars" which is *wonderful.*

The recording of "Mack the Knife" by Sting is fantastic, as is the "Ballad in
which Macheath Begs All Men for Forgiveness" by Todd Rundgren.  Marianne
Faithfull singing the "Ballad of the Soldier's Wife" is a stunning change
compared to my last recording of her from the sixties.  Tom Waits belts out
an impressive "What Keeps Mankind Alive."

/john

    A batch of new Kurt Weill CD's have come out recently.
    
    There are now 2 CD recordings of "The Rise and Fall of the City of
    Mahagonny," sung in German.  One is the old 1950's recording with
    Lotte Lenya as Jenny.  The other, which is the one I bought, is a
    new recording on Capriccio with Anna Silja as Jenny.  This new
    recording is based on the critical edition of Mahagonny prepared in
    the 1960's by Weill scholar David Drew.  It incorporates revisions
    that Weill made in the year or two after Mahagonny's premiere, and
    eliminates most of the revisions made for some productions to
    accomodate Lenya's lower vocal range.  The opera fits on 2 70+
    minute CD's and is a fine performance and fine DDD recording - and
    cost only $20 at the Harvard Coop.  I recommend it highly.
    
    The 1950's German recording of "Threepenny Opera," again featuring
    Lotte Lenya, has also been released on CD.  Also, Nonesuch has
    released their recording of the "Suite from Threepenny Opera" for
    wind ensemble, combined with Milhaud's "La creation du monde", on
    their budget series.  It's a good performance, but the CD is only
    38 minutes long, so it's a good thing it's on the budget series.
    
    A few other song recitals have also been released.  The one I'm
    especially inerested in is called "This is the Life".  According
    to the Arabesque ad, it's sung by a baritone whose name I don't
    remember and features previously unrecorded songs.  Now to find
    it and buy it.

Richard Dyer  had  a  favorable  review  of the new recording in the Boston
Globe Calendar section a week or two ago.

						Rod Burr