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Weill: A Portrait

Sterling Records

$32.99 May 05, 2017

Kurt Weill was a completely groundbreaking composer in that he, along with Bertolt Brecht developed the characteristic cabaret style (Song) inspired by the American jazz music, minstrel shows and vaudeville with influences from Jewish klezmer music. Tango often played a major role, even in his operas. Often Weill sought after a Verfremdungseffekt, by using odd chords for the key, achieving a kind of desolation and unpleasant feeling. In the 1920s, his songs often sung by an actor. The performance was often characterized as Sprechgesang, recitative, helping the message to carry over the ramp. Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill's wife, was a very successful actress with strong charisma but with an almost unlovely voice. She came to survive her husband by over 30 years and was his best ambassador. When Weill came to Paris he changed his style. The songs then had a softer image. When he later came to New York he toned down some of the characteristic cabaret style in favor of a more Broadway-customed style. Nevertheless, there remain elements of Hebrew flavour and typical Weill touches in these songs. Many of these are now considered to belong to The American Songbook. On this recording we have strived to portray the musical development of Kurt Weill, from Berlin to Broadway, from 1928 to 1950, and have selected songs that are characteristic for each period.

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Weill: A Portrait
Sterling Records May 2017
CD
$32.99

Weill: From Berlin to Broadway

Chandos

$21.99 Feb 01, 2002

This release by the award-winning Center City Brass Quintet showcases the depth and variety of music by the German-born composer Kurt Weill, beginning with a suite of songs from his best-known Threepenny Opera. This is followed by a collection of cabaret and art songs composed in Europe, and concludes with songs composed in America for the Broadway stage in collaboration with the likes of Ira Gershwin and Moss Hart. (Chandos)

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Weill: From Berlin to Broadway
Chandos Feb 2002
CD
$21.99

Sale

Weill: Symphony No 1 & 2, Etc / Alsop, Bournemouth So
Naxos Aug 2005
CD
~~$19.99~~ $13.99

Weill: The Seven Deadly Sins / Nowak, Silja

SWR

$9.99 May 10, 2019

The Seven Deadly Sins is a satirical parable and the last co-operation between Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht. The present album is a re-release of the SWRmusic bestseller 93.109 having the outstanding Anja Silja as Anna. The ‘sung ballet’ is in nine movements, and was written in 1933 as Weill watched the Nazis seize power following the Reichstag fire of February 1933. Both Brecht and Weill knew that as Jewish men, Berlin could no longer be their home. He obtained the commission for Seven Deadly Sins while in Paris. The scenario of the libretto mirrors Brecht’s own travels after fleeing Germany, expanded to one-year sojourns in each of seven cities.

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Weill: The Seven Deadly Sins / Nowak, Silja
SWR May 2019
CD
$9.99

Weill: Songs

Brilliant Classics

$14.99 May 15, 2026

Kurt Weill (1900-1950) was a German-born composer whose work bridged the worlds of classical music, cabaret, and theater. Renowned for his collaborations with playwright Bertolt Brecht, Weill became a defining voice of the Weimar Republic, crafting a musical language that fused biting social commentary with popular idioms such as jazz, tango, and dance-band rhythms. His songs are remarkable for their wit, directness, and deep humanity - qualities that make them as relevant today as they were in the politically charged 1920s and 1930s. Weill's complete songs for voice and piano reveal the breadth of his artistic vision. Early works show his roots in late-Romanticism and his training under Ferruccio Busoni. However, it was through his partnership with Brecht that Weill found his distinctive style. His Songs blend satirical text with deceptively simple melodies, creating unforgettable portraits of urban life and moral ambiguity. Similarly, Mahagonny-Songspiel (1927), Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (1930) and Die Dreigroschenoper offer songs of ironic beauty that expose the corruption and absurdity of modern society. After emigrating to the United States in 1935, Weill reinvented himself once again, writing in English and embracing Broadway while retaining his sharp social awareness. American songs such as "September Song" (Knickerbocker Holiday, 1938), "Speak Low" (One Touch of Venus, 1943), display a haunting lyricism and emotional clarity that transcend genre. Collectively, Weill's songs for voice and piano form a rich and multifaceted body of work -at once sophisticated and accessible, European and American, classical and popular- embodying the restless creativity of one of the twentieth century's most original musical voices. Greek soprano Eleni Lydia Stamellou was Prize Winner at the Ferruccio Tagliavini Competition in Austria, with Dame Joan Sutherland as the president of the jury. She subsequently attended masterclasses given by Teresa Berganza, Edda Moser and Christa Ludwig. She sang in opera productions with MusicAeterna conducted by Teodor Currentzis. Her specialization is Renaissance/Baroque and Contemporary Music. She sang in productions of Berio and Hersant. Her excellent piano partner is Alexandra Listova.

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Weill: Songs
Brilliant Classics May 2026
CD
$14.99

Mix & Match

Weill: Propheten, Whitman Songs / Hampson, Davies

Capriccio

$21.99 Jun 02, 2023

The score of The Prophets, intended as the last act of The Eternal Road, was the last that Kurt Weill composed in Europe and his last extensive setting in German, before he personally and professionally adopted the language of his new home, America. Musically, he drew on all his previous great works, from Mahagonny and the Seven Deadly Sins to his Second Symphony. At the same time, he foreshadowed some of his soon-to-be-written works for Broadway.

In 1998 David Drew devised the concert adaptation of this act, of which this is the premiere’s recording. The Four Walt Whitman Songs, meanwhile, were a product of the war years and reveal Weill at his most touchingly American, fusing American theater song with the German Lied, Berlin with Brooklyn.

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Weill: Propheten, Whitman Songs / Hampson, Davies
Capriccio Jun 2023
CD
$21.99

Weill: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny / Henschel, White, Heras-Casado [Blu-ray]

BelAir Classiques

Blu-Ray

$36.99 Nov 15, 2011

Also available on standard DVD

Leocadia Begbick - Jane Henschel
Fatty "the Bookkeeper" - Donald Kaasch
Trinity Moses - Willard White
Jenny Smith - Measha Brueggergosman
Jim Maclntyre - Michael König
O’Brien/Higgins - John Easterlin
Bank-Account Bill - Otto Katzameier
Alaska-Wolf Joe - Steven Humes

Conductor: Pablo Heras-Casado
Stage Direction : Alex Ollé, Carlus Padrissa – La Fura dels Baus

A hard-hitting new production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by the Catalan collective La Fura dels Baus at the Teatro Real de Madrid.

Composed in the 1930s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this is a mordant satire on capitalism and the inexorable industrialisation of a society in which the ultimate crime is not having money. In twenty scenes the authors tell the story of a city lost in the middle of a desert and run by three thugs; in Mahagonny food, sex, gambling and violence rule supreme.

The production by Alex Ollé and Carlus Padrissa, both of La Fura dels Baus, combines enormous inventiveness, joy and energy with awe-inspiring ferocity.

Perfect casting brings together a group of singers – Measha Brueggergosman, Michael König, Jane Henschel and Willard White – who are also marvellous actors.

The Teatro Real Orchestra and Chorus are directed by young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, who actually began his career at the Teatro Real. In November 2010, he received the “El Ojo Crítico” prize, awarded annually to Spain’s most outstanding artists in the classical music field.

Director: Andy Sommer
Length: 138 min
Subtitles: French / English / German / Spanish
Zones: All Zones - 1 disc

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Weill: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny / Henschel, White, Heras-Casado [Blu-ray]
BelAir Classiques Nov 2011
Blu-Ray
$36.99

Sale

Weill: 7 Deadly Sins (The) / Quodlibet, Op. 9
SWR Apr 2004
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Weill: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2; Der Silbersee / Gruber, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

BIS

SACD

$21.99 Feb 03, 2023

Although Kurt Weill’s principal legacy lies in music theatre works of both popular appeal and intellectual weight, he was equally at home in purely orchestral works as evidenced by his two symphonies. Written just over a decade apart, they reveal his chameleon-like ability to work with any range of style and form. The Symphonie in einem Satz (Symphony in one movement), completed when he was barely 21, adopts an expressionist idiom that shows intricate writing, dense counterpoint and quick shifts reminiscent of Schoenberg's First Chamber Symphony. Completed in France in 1934 after Weill had to flee Nazi Germany, the Fantaisie symphonique is filled with allusions to the 'sung ballet' The Seven Deadly Sins, composed at the same time. Opening the programme is a selection from the ‘play with music’ Der Silbersee (The Silver Lake), a commentary on commercial greed. As in The Threepenny Opera, the vocal parts were composed for singing actors rather than opera singers. Steeped in the world of Weill, conductor, composer and chansonnier HK Gruber performs the songs himself in his own inimitable way, giving an unusual authenticity to the interpretations.

REVIEWS:

The collection is conducted by HK Gruber, a standard-setting interpreter of Weill’s music, who has been inspired by the composer in his own works. His account of the first symphony (1921) tightly controls what could easily seem scattered; and he sings in the “Silbersee” excerpts, with the gravely, unrefined affect of Lotte Lenya that will be instantly familiar to those who know his 1977 song cycle “Frankenstein!!” The second symphony unfurls with an ease that becomes more disturbing as, from behind the wit and tunefulness, emerge flashes of heartbroken nostalgia and martial terror. The scores comes out sounding more personal, if documentary, for it — a postcard from a precarious Europe on the brink.

-- New York Times (Joshua Barone)

Der Silbersee was Kurt Weill’s European swan-song; premiered in Berlin in February 1933, it was banned by the Nazis in March, and Weill was forced to flee Germany.

There’s a jarring contrast between the pungent text (beautifully projected here by HK Gruber) and the lovely orchestral accompaniment that perfectly sums up Weill’s best music. There are only a few excerpts from the score, but they’re choice.

The marvelous Symphony No. 2 is close to the top of my list of obscure orchestral works that deserve to be programmed and recorded much more frequently. He’s taken the accessible theatre music which had become his hallmark, and neatly slotted it within the classical symphony form of Haydn and Mozart.

Back in 1921, Kurt Weill had written his Symphony in One Movement (his First). His characterization of it: “By Mahler, out of Strauss, trained by Schoenberg.” Weill cleverly melds the neo-romantic tradition with leading edge serialism. This is more than juvenilia; it’s an accomplished work in its own right. Weill has the compositional skill this early in his composing career to produce music that has value a century later.

This project is a perfect example of honest performance of great music; with stellar support from the musicians of the Swedish Chamber Choir, we have here an outstanding contribution to the Weill discography.

-- Music for Several Instruments

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Weill: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2; Der Silbersee / Gruber, Swedish Chamber Orchestra
BIS Feb 2023
SACD
$21.99

Weill: Der Jasager
Capriccio Jan 1991
CD
$10.99

Weill: Lost In The Stars / Rudel, Concert Chorale Of New York

Nimbus

$16.99 Jul 01, 2009

Weill’s last completed work given a fine, dramatic reading.

Lost in the Stars is Weill’s last completed work. It was based on the novel, Cry the Beloved Country by the South African writer, Alan Paton (1903-1988) and represents a very speedy adaptation, since Paton’s book was only published in 1948. Yet by the following year Weill and his librettist, Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959), had written the musical, which opened on Broadway in October 1949, where the original production ran for 273 performances.

In brief, the story concerns Stephen Kumalo, an African pastor, serving in a South African country parish, whose son, Absalom, has gone off to find work and a better life in Johannesburg. There he meets Irina, who conceives their child, but he also falls in with some less suitable male company and with these men he takes part in a burglary, during the course of which a white man – ironically, a campaigner for racial equality in Paton’s novel - is killed. When Stephen, unaware of these events, arrives in Johannesburg to search for his son he eventually finds the pregnant Irina and then locates his son, who is in jail, awaiting trial.

Inevitably Absalom is found guilty and sentenced to death. Not only are father and son reconciled but Stephen realises Irina’s worth. He marries the couple in jail so that their child will have Absalom’s name, and then takes Irina back to the family home and his parish where she is taken into the family’s care before the death sentence on Absalom is carried out.

This is emphatically not a conventional subject for a Broadway musical – like the earlier groundbreaking Showboat, which addressed the issue of miscegenation, it tackles a tough subject but it’s much more gritty than Jerome Kern’s great show. As David Kilroy observes in his excellent note, Lost in the Stars created in 1949 “a musico-dramatic parable of a new social order for an American public floundering with its own racial prejudices in the immediate postwar era.” In fact, in many ways it takes us back to the world of Weill’s collaborations with Bertolt Brecht. For example, there are some similarities in the musical styles. The scoring is for a small ensemble of some sixteen players and quite often the instrumental writing is pungent in a way that recalls those Brecht shows.

Lost in the Stars was Weill’s last completed work and it’s a fine creation, its quality emphasised by this excellent performance. We only get the musical numbers together with some of the spoken dialogue but the story line is not compromised.

The musical invention is strong; there are several memorable numbers in the show. The best of them fall to the character of Stephen and, in a strong cast, Arthur Woodley is one of the best performers of all. He has a fine, firm voice. His tone is consistently strong and round and his diction is excellent – though the libretto is printed it’s almost superfluous since all the cast enunciate very clearly. Woodley brings dignity and intensity to the role and among the highlights of the entire performance are his renditions of ‘Little Gray House’ and the title song. He also gives an excellent account of the emotionally charged soliloquy, ‘O Tixo, Tixo, Help Me!’ in Act II.

The other principal character is Irina, Absalom’s girlfriend. Cynthia Clarey gives a strong account of Irina’s music, singing ‘Stay Well’ expressively and delivering the touching ‘Trouble Man’ with real feeling. My one reservation is that her voice is a big, mature instrument and it might be thought rather too heavy to suggest a young, frightened and vulnerable girl.

Also impressive is Gregory Hopkins as the Leader of the chorus. He has a ringing, pliant tenor voice, which serves the opening number ‘The Hills of Ixopo’ very well. Even better is the ardent song, ‘Cry the Beloved Country’. Incidentally, great trouble has evidently been taken to ensure authentic pronunciation by all the cast; an adviser from the South African embassy, Tuli Demikude, was retained specially for this purpose

The chorus and orchestra are very fine indeed, bringing out all the tension and bite in Weill’s score but providing the right emotional charge. Julius Rudel directs proceedings with evident commitment to the score. The rhythms are kept tight and the memorable tunes flow most convincingly.

The recorded sound is perhaps a little close but not in any troubling way. Indeed, there’s rather a feel of the performance being mounted in a small theatre. Perhaps, though, that feeling is more down to the dramatic flair of this performance. The work clearly matters a great deal to Rudel, who says in a brief introductory comment that he regards it as “a composition of great depth, deceptively couched in simple settings.” That belief in the score shines through in his fine, dramatic reading.

Originally made for the MusicMasters catalogue, it’s excellent news that the recording has now been reissued by Nimbus. All admirers of Kurt Weill will want to add it to their collections but it should be heard by anyone interested in the unique art-form that is the American Musical.

-- John Quinn, MusicWeb International

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Weill: Lost In The Stars / Rudel, Concert Chorale Of New York
Nimbus Jul 2009
CD
$16.99

Weill: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny / Henschel, White, Heras-Casado

BelAir Classiques

DVD

$29.99 Nov 15, 2011

Also available on Blu-ray

Leocadia Begbick - Jane Henschel
Fatty "the Bookkeeper" - Donald Kaasch
Trinity Moses - Willard White
Jenny Smith - Measha Brueggergosman
Jim Maclntyre - Michael König
O’Brien/Higgins - John Easterlin
Bank-Account Bill - Otto Katzameier
Alaska-Wolf Joe - Steven Humes

Conductor: Pablo Heras-Casado
Stage Direction : Alex Ollé, Carlus Padrissa – La Fura dels Baus

A hard-hitting new production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by the Catalan collective La Fura dels Baus at the Teatro Real de Madrid.

Composed in the 1930s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this is a mordant satire on capitalism and the inexorable industrialisation of a society in which the ultimate crime is not having money. In twenty scenes the authors tell the story of a city lost in the middle of a desert and run by three thugs; in Mahagonny food, sex, gambling and violence rule supreme.

The production by Alex Ollé and Carlus Padrissa, both of La Fura dels Baus, combines enormous inventiveness, joy and energy with awe-inspiring ferocity.

Perfect casting brings together a group of singers – Measha Brueggergosman, Michael König, Jane Henschel and Willard White – who are also marvellous actors.

The Teatro Real Orchestra and Chorus are directed by young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, who actually began his career at the Teatro Real. In November 2010, he received the “El Ojo Crítico” prize, awarded annually to Spain’s most outstanding artists in the classical music field.

Director: Andy Sommer
Length: 138 min - Image: 16/9 NTSC
Audio: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: French / English / German / Spanish
Zones: All Zones - 1 disc

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Weill: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny / Henschel, White, Heras-Casado
BelAir Classiques Nov 2011
DVD
$29.99

Weill: Lady In The Dark / Stevens, Kaye, Abravanel
Sony Masterworks Aug 2012
CD
$17.99

THIS TIME THE DREAM'S ON ME

HIGHNOTE

$16.63 May 22, 2012

Larry Willis sits down in the famed Fazioli piano showroom in Italy for this 2012 HighNote solo piano recording which highlights his inexhaustible imagination, the stunning sound of the Fazioli piano and songwriting abilities of the composers represented here. Whether it be Kurt Weill's hauntingly beautiful "My Ship," the pop-tinged "True Love," by Cole Porter or his own compositions, Larry Willis displays the intense creativity and impeccable taste which made him the preferred pianist of greats such as Jackie McLean, Nat Adderley, Carmen McRae, Lee Morgan, Woody Shaw and others.

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THIS TIME THE DREAM'S ON ME
HIGHNOTE May 2012
CD
$16.63

Portraying Passion

LAWO Classics

$18.99 Apr 12, 2019

When Tora Augestad releases a musical portrait together with the Oslo Philharmonic, there's nothing less than Kurt Weill, Marcus Paus, and Charles Ives on the menu. Augestad's repertoire for "Portraying Passion" takes the musical qualities of modernist, individualistic composers and places them squarely within the context of the 21st century. Paus' contemporary composition enhances Ives' visionary dissonance as well as the contrasting melodic shifts of Weill's orchestrations, yet brings something entirely new to the table, with it's startling text and cabaretesque presentation. Parker and Brecht could just as well walk arm in arm down the conceptual pathway of understated satire, counterbalanced by the ethereal, transcendental text of Ives' songs, forming a complementary whole. Add Augestad's unique approach to these works into the equation, and the listener is served with a program certain to make them re-examine any former assumptions, and delight at the outcome. And therein lies the timeless dimension of this mezzo-soprano's considerable artistry. Tora Augestad is an artist equally at home in concert halls, theater and cabaret stages, and contemporary music arenas. Through commissioning new works and through collaboration with her various ensembles, she continuously seeks new challenges and the exchange of artistic ideas. Theatrically convincing with a compelling personality, her vocal capabilities defy easy classification.

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Portraying Passion
LAWO Classics Apr 2019
CD
$18.99

Weill: Street Scene / Murray, Teatro real de Madrid [Blu-ray]

BelAir Classiques

Blu-Ray

$36.99 Nov 15, 2019

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Kurt Weill wrote Street Scene shortly after fleeing Nazi Germany to the United States. When he discovered the vitality of the American musical scene, his focus became to reconcile the Broadway “musical” with European traditional opera, jazzy and North-American tunes with an almost Puccinian-like lyricism. In his mind, opera had to embrace and reclaim its own theatricality : thus he wrote his Street Scene, meant to be a truly American opera, half-way between his Brechtian Threepenny’s Opera and Bernstein’s later West Side Story and drawing from the famous play by Elmer Rice (recipient of the Pulitzer Prize when it was published in 1928). The main plot of this rampant collection of scenes from the streets of the lower East Side of New York revolves around Frank and Anna Maurant and their daughter Rose. A violent and tough character, Frank fails to see his wife’s growing despair due to his lack of affection. When he discovers her with her lover, he shoots them both and goes to jail, leaving behind a heartbroken Rose who, after having experienced relentless harassment by two aggressive suitors, misses her one true chance at love. The opera ends by showing the streets of New York City moving on from these mundane events in total indifference. Under Tim Murray’s vivid and precise baton, this superb production by John Fulljames perfectly renders the vitality and energy released by the streets of New York, that proved to be a great inspiration to the theatrical mind of the composer.

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Weill: Street Scene / Murray, Teatro real de Madrid [Blu-ray]
BelAir Classiques Nov 2019
Blu-Ray
$36.99