Weill: Orchestral Works

Album review

The early Kurt Weill works on this album by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and conductor HK Gruber give the lie to any neat division of the composer's works into popular and classical. Only the expressionistic Symphony No. 1 ("Berlin"), written when Weill was 21, falls clearly into the latter category. One big attraction of the album is the presence of excerpts from Der Silbersee - Ein Wintermärchen, a "play with music" that Weill wrote just prior to his flight from Germany (and whose performances were disrupted by anti-Semitic attacks). It contains music and dialogue in equal measure (here in English), with a dark story of crime and unexpected wealth that is reflected in edgy, ironic music not far from that of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Weill's Symphony No. 2, designated a Fantasie symphonique, refers to the composer's The Seven Deadly Sins, a dance theater piece on which he collaborated with Bertolt Brecht and contains aspects of Weill's popular style. Both of the symphonies use spare orchestration that is ideally suited to the forces of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and Gruber sculpts a dry tone that brings out the commonalities among the pieces. As Weill's music becomes more often performed and appreciated as a unified whole, this BIS release makes a valuable contribution.

© James Manheim /TiVo