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 Wintermaerchen
, a "play with music" that
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
.
'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
's popular style. Both of the symphonies use spare orchestration that is ideally suited to the forces of the
, and
Gruber
sculpts a dry tone that brings out the commonalities among the pieces. As
's music becomes more often performed and appreciated as a unified whole, this
BIS
release makes a valuable contribution. ~ James Manheim