Kurt Weill Edition Vol. 2 (5 CDs)

Kurt WEILL (1900-1950)

Kurt Weill Edition Vol.2

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagony 

The Tsar has his Photograph Taken

Der Kuhhandel

Happy End

Anja Silja

Anny Schlemm  

König-Ensemble  

WDR Rundfunkorchester

Jan Latham-König

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CDs 1 and 2

Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (1930) 

Anny Schlemm (Widow Begbick), Thomas Lehrberger (Fatty), Klaus Hirte (Trinity Moses), Anja Silja (Jenny), Wolfgang Neumann (Jimmy), Frederic Mayer (Jakob Schmidt, Toby Higgins), Paul Wolfrum (Bill), Hans Franzen (Joe), Pro Musica Vocal Ensemble of Köln State High School for Music, WDR Radio Orchestra Köln/Jan Latham-König

rec. WDR Funkhaus Studio 1, Cologne, June 1985

CD3

Der Zar lässt sich photographieren (1928) 

Barry McDaniel (Tsar), Carla Pohl (Angèle), Thomas Lehrberger (Assistant), Ulla Tocha (Boy), Marita Napier (False Angèle), Heinz Kruse (False Assistant), Hilke Helling (False Boy), Mario Brell (Leader), Hans Franzen (Equerry), 

Köln Radio Choir, WDR Radio Orchestra Köln/Jan Latham-König

rec. WDR Funkhaus Studio 1, Cologne, November 1984

CD4

Der Kuhhandel (1935)

Lucy Peacock (Juanita), Eberhard Büchner (Juan), Christian Schotenröhr (Mr Jones), Walter Raffeiner (Mendez), Udo Holdorf (Ximenez), Oskar Hillebrandt (Conchas), Darius Nieminowicz (Emilio), Ingeborg Most (Juan’s mother), Frederic Mayer (Bailiff), Renate Zimmermann (Odette), Regina Röttger (Maiden), Franz Gerihausen (Minister), Heinz Heidbüchel (Mayor), José Wagner (Rector), Köln Radio Choir, WDR Radio Orchestra Köln/Jan Latham-König

rec. Studio Stolberger Strasse, Cologne, 1990

CD5

Happy End (1929) 

Gabriele Ramm (Lilian), Walter Raffeiner (Bill, Hannibal), Karin Ploog (Woman in grey), Steven Kimbrough (Sam, Speaker), Lutz Göhnemeier (Narrator), Pro Musica Vocal Ensemble of Köln State High School for Music, König Ensemble/Jan Latham-König

rec. Studio Stohlberger Strasse, Cologne, October 1988

In the framework of Capriccio’s Kurt Weill edition the present second CD-Box now offers a collection of the prestigious recordings of well known and mostly unknown stage works of the composer. Beside the complete recording of Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny  we also included some rarities like his first comical opera The Tsar Has His Photograph Taken and in the spirit of Offenbach, witty and with a socio-political background, composed operetta Der Kuhhandel (Sheady Dealing).

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...The recording of the other major work here, The rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny, is rather less successful. The problem comes not with the singers but with the slightly polite approach to the orchestral writing. Anja Silja is an inspired choice for the leading role - she quite succeeds in making the listener forget Lenya. The use of a small body of strings may be authentic, but it does make for an anaemic effect in places which might have been helped by more tactful microphone placement but these considerations take on less importance beside the presentation of the score as Weill originally wrote it. At least, insofar as we can determine what Weill wrote, since all of his theatrical works were the subject of frequent adjustment during the course of rehearsals and even runs of performances. In Mahagonny this means the omission of the ‘Crane Duet’ which – given the singing of Silja and Wolfgang Neumann – is a loss keenly to be felt. Lenya’s recording includes it but makes cuts elsewhere and it does mean here that the recollection of the material during the final duet between Jenny and Jimmy makes little sense — although surprisingly that does seem to be the way that Weill originally wrote it.

There is a recommendable alternative reading of Der Silbersee with the London Sinfonietta, but this omits much of the dialogue which we are given here in full – and which would be much more valuable if we were provided with the necessary information as to what it was about. There are more versions of Happy End and the Seven Deadly Sins, including performances in the Lenya series. Here we are given the latter work with the transpositions that Lenya found necessary, but this can be justified even on musical grounds since Weill made these alterations prior to the first performance. Happy End includes the full spoken dialogue by Brecht, which is worthwhile in its own right. The singing casts throughout are excellent, with major names among them – Barry McDaniel, Marita Napier and Hans Kruse, for example, in Der Zar lässt sich photographieren.

Which brings us back to the other works in this edition. For many of them – The Tsar has his photograph taken, The Lindbergh flight, Der Jasager, Der Kuhhandel – there are simply no alternatives in the current catalogues; and all of these are works which deserve at least an occasional airing. Indeed some of them were not available even in the form of excerpts before these discs were originally issued.

A ‘Kurt Weill edition’ is the ideal place in which to find these recordings but the absence of texts and translations remains crippling. The original issues have long disappeared from the listings, and second-hand copies on Amazon are relatively expensive - £12.30 for a second-hand copy of Der Zar and twice that for Der Lindberghflug, for example. Downloads are cheap enough, but again a purchaser will run into the same problems with texts. Incidentally, when looking at second-hand copies you may also note that some works included in the original issues – Down in the valley, The Ballad of Magna Carta – are missing from this new edition. It is unclear why these recordings have been omitted, since there would have been plenty of room for at least some of them on these discs.

Any potential purchaser is faced with a real quandary here. Either you invest in the whole two boxed sets of this edition in order to obtain the rarities – in which case you must either speak German fluently or must be prepared to try to obtain the texts elsewhere. I would have thought translations would be even more difficult to find. You could look around for second-hand copies of the original issues but these would probably be an even more expensive option. Unless Capriccio are prepared to reverse their policy on the provision of proper supporting material for their reissues — and it is, I hope, still not too late — this ‘edition’ is going to be a dead duck. This is all the more disappointing, since the performances and recordings are excellent, with Jan Latham-König — who directs the majority of the readings — clearly totally in sympathy with Weill’s style and idiom. What an opportunity has been missed here.

Paul Corfield Godfrey (from Music Web review of Vols 1 and 2)