A

Composer Kurt Weill in Berlin,
in 1932, before he was forced
to flee the Nazis.

mercial output in the New World.
Weill may not have composed any
symphonies after he settled in the
States, but the music he did write,
such as the sweetly rueful It Never
Was You" and the autumnal medita-
tion "September Song," is popular,
and also superbly crafted.
In fact, it can be argued that
musicals like Knickerbocker Holiday
and One Touch of Venus or the
Broadway opera Street Scene are
stronger musical statements than the
Symphony No. 2, which is neverthe-
less appealingly recorded here. This
1933 work is reminiscent of the
ironic wit of Mahler, but Weill's
skills in developing his ideas are fair-
ly weak.
More forceful is the 1924
Concerto for Violin and Wind
Orchestra, a sparse, acerbic piece
often said to be infused with
Schoenberg's influence. But the scor-
ing and the feel remind one more of
Stravinsky, who preferred the domi-
nance of percussion and winds.
Violinist Frank Peter Zimmerman
turns in a cogent performance even
though the work lacks flashy
episodes.
The "Suite" from The Rise and Fall
of the City of Mahagonny, arranged by
Wilhelm Bruckner-Ruggeberg, is a
sprightly distillation of the 1929
opera, a stinging attack on capitalism
that Weill wrote with his famous col-
laborator, Bertolt Brecht. Conductor
Jansons coaxes the orchestra to play
with verve, mordant wit and even a
tinge of melancholy, qualities that give
Weill's music its flavorful distinction.
When one recognizes in the
"Suite" such wonderful tunes as the
"Alabama Song" and "As You Make
Your Bed," it becomes apparent that
the stage, not Germany or America,
was Weill's true home.

— Reviewed by George Bulanda

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2/12
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Detroit Jewish News

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