An outstanding contribution to the Weill discography

Kurt Weill: Two Symphonies, Der Silbersee excerpts

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, first to Paris, and then to New York. The text, by Georg Kaiser, is as strongly satirical as anything by Bertolt Brecht:

Raise a tower with walls of stone around you,
You won’t hear the wretched cries outside.
Be blind, be deaf, never write off a debt,
You’d lose your money and the gains from it.
Don’t ever deny the greatest of all profit:
Interest and compound interest.

Weill's music for Der Silbersee reminds me of his great musical theatre works with Brecht: The Threepenny Opera (1928), Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930), and The Seven Deadly Sins (1933). "The Song of the Lottery Ticket Seller" from the first act, "Was zahlen Sie für einen Rat?", uses the same tango rhythms we know from those works. 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.

When Kurt Weill made his way to Paris in 1933 he began work with Brecht on The Seven Deadly Sins, and you can hear echoes of this work in his Symphony no. 2, which was completed in 1934. This marvellous Symphony 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. What a shame that the critical pans that followed its premiere at the Concertgebouw under Bruno Walter pushed Weill to swear off concert music for the rest of his career. 

Before any of these works mentioned, 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.

HK Gruber is a fascinating person: a one-time child chorister with the Vienna Boys Choir, he became a virtuoso of the double-bass, a composer and conductor. He's also an outstanding singer and actor, and a great advocate for the music of Kurt Weill. Gruber's own view of Weill:

"He brought complexity and popular music under one hat. It makes no difference between light music and serious music — just a kind of music which is simply honest."

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.

The wonderful cover photo of The Lichtburg cinema in Berlin is by Martin Höhlig, from 1929.

This album was released on February 3, 2023.

Fresh and Vital Bach and Pärt

Bach: Violin Concertos; Pärt: Fratres, Spiegel Im Spiegel

"The slow movement from Bach’s A Minor Concerto was the reason that, at the age of four, I knew I wanted to play the violin for the rest of my life. Of course, I had no idea at the time what that would really mean — but I was so overwhelmed by the beauty and depth of Bach’s music that there was no question for me: I simply had to become a musician!"

Playing the Guarneri del Gesù ‘Sainton’ violin from 1744, Arabella Steinbacher provides a luscious sound, rich and full, that focuses one's attention completely, almost ignoring the to-and-fro of the orchestral and solo parts, and even of the beautiful melodies that Bach provides. It's remarkable how an instrument made that long ago could be used to play music that's three centuries old and sound so fresh and alive. I've long been a fan of Steinbacher's; I've raved about her playing in a wide variety of repertoire: Bartok, Brahms, and Hindemith and Britten. Here she plays two Bach Violin Concertos: in E major and A minor, and a Bach Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, with another fine violinist, Christian Kontz. Once again Pentatone provides fine accompaniment: the agile and stylish Stuttgarter Kammerorchester.

J. S. Bach's manuscript score of the violin part for

the slow movement of his A minor Concerto

Two Arvo Pärt pieces bookend the three Bach concertos. His Fratres comes in many versions; this one, for violin, string orchestra and percussion, is from 1992. This is a suitable prelude to the meat of the programme: hushed and reverential, but in the end as dramatic a curtain raiser as a Rossini overture. The final piece, Spiegel im Spiegel, in its original 1978 version for violin and piano, acts as a kind of valedictory encore. Once again, Arabella Steinbacher has a fine partner, in pianist Peter von Wienhardt.

The wonderful photo of Steinbacher on the album cover is by Co Merz.

This album will be released on February 10, 2023.

Between sacred and profane

Heinrich Biber: Sonatae Tam Aris, quam Aulis servientes

The title of Heinrich Biber's sonatas from 1676 can be translated as "as much for the altar as for the table". The composer seemed to specialize in the overlap between the ecclesiastical and the courtly, religious and secular, sacred and profane. Blurring the lines between these spheres is evidence of Biber's own faith, but also a spirit of experimentation and innovation, and a firm belief that music is a central feature of life. A predilection towards theology turns to mysticism, coming to full flower in his Mystery Sonatas, also from 1676.

Biber was the Sir Paul McCartney of his day. In 1690 he was raised to nobility by Emperor Leopold I, with the title of Biber von Bibern. As with Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre and Louis XIV a few decades later, it's encouraging to see great composers receiving sincere praise from monarchs; so often we hear stories of geniuses unappreciated in their lifetimes, their careers blighted by Philistine taste-makers and powerful people.

The Sonatae Tam Aris, quam Aulis servientes are made up of a mixture of styles: French dance suite and Italian sonata, differing orchestration, a variety of moods, and an alternation between virtuosity and contemplation. Trumpet fanfares are inserted in this version, calls that evoke the majesty of both the Church and the Monarchy and Nobility. This is an entire world-view contained in about 80 minutes of music.

This music is especially well served on disc. I've sampled the versions by Ars Antiqua Austria, from 2015; Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, from 2007; and the Purcell Quartet, from 1996. But my go-to disc for this music is the 1998 recording from The Rare Fruits Council under Manfredo Kraemer. That's not supplanted by this new version from Harmonie Universelle, but it can be difficult to replace a well-loved recording more than twenty years old. I was certainly impressed with the virtuosity and violin sound of the two soloists, Florian Deuter and Monica Waisman, as well as the ensemble playing of the musicians of Harmonie Universelle. We're lucky to have such a wealth of Biber interpretations!

This album will be released on January 20, 2023.

Sonatas for the Sun King

Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre: The Violin Sonatas of 1707

The publication by Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre of six Violin Sonatas in 1707 was a landmark event in French music. The music of "Mademoiselle Delaguerre" was dedicated to Louis XIV, and the Sun King attended its first performance.

"Dinner being over, His Majesty spoke to Mlle de la Guerre in a most gracious manner; after having praised her sonatas extensively, he said to her that they could not be compared to any other such works. Mlle de la Guerre could not have received higher praise, for these words revealed that the King had not only found her music to be most fine, but also to be original — a quality that today is extremely rare."

These are among the first violin sonatas in which the harpsichord makes the move from being part of the continuo, towards an obligato role, becoming a true partner of the violin, which would eventually reach its zenith in the publication 34 years later of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Pièces de clavecin en concerts.

These are wonderful performances, with Dana Maiben playing a beautifully-sounding Nicola Amati violin of 1658, Sarah Cunningham on viola da gamba, and Lisa Goode Crawford on harpsichord. This performance was recorded more than five years ago, in July 2017, but I don't believe it's been published in any other form. This is an important disc of important music, and the sense of occasion that comes when one listens to it makes it clear that it was definitely worth the wait.

I love Quinton McMillon's illustration on the album cover, based on the famous painting by François de Troy, which dates from the end of the 17th or the beginning of the 18th century.

This album will be released on January 20, 2023.

More Haydn symphonies from Heidelberg

Haydn: Symphonies 3, 33, 108, 14

The numbering of Haydn's symphonies is very complicated, and sometimes even controversial. It might look like this selection of symphonies comes from the beginning, middle and end of the composer's career, but they're all rather early, probably from the early 1860s. Former Chief Conductor Thomas Fey had completed 24 discs in this Hännsler series of Complete Haydn Symphonies. When Johannes Klumpp took over in 2020, he continued the series, with volume 25.

I've been spending a lot of time in the world of galant schemas lately - see my recent reviews of Boccherini and Michael Haydn. As relatively minor as these four symphonies might be within Franz Joseph's oeuvre, they all strike me as being well above the industry average of the time. It's works like these that helped Haydn build his European reputation once he made his move to Esterházy Palace in 1761.

Symphony "108" (aka Symphony B), from 1762, was once thought to be a String Quartet, but wind parts were later found. It doesn't sound at all out of place in this context. The Heidelberg players are a small group: 13 string players and 11 woodwinds, brass and drums. Though they're lithe and nimble, this is completely a chamber orchestra sound, rather than chamber music.

Symphony 33 is either from 1761-2, or 1763-65. I'd be inclined to choose the later date; this is a wonderful trumpet and drums work, very festive, but not lacking in substance. Klumpp characterizes this symphony in his excellent liner notes: "Large intervals are the order of the day – wild leaps, like a young stallion, no solemn stuffiness." The Heidelberg players really nail this one!

Symphony 3 is just as out of place as the 108/B and 33: it was written in 1760-62, while Haydn's earliest symphonies were written in 1757. This is another charming piece, and played with style and grace. In the context of this album Symphony 14 is the Goldilocks Symphony; not too early, not too late. It's just right, in terms of the numbers. And it's just right musically as well. As slight as this piece is, it's full of invention, and the Heidelberger Sinfoniker really swing here. According to Klumpp, "Everything is many-faceted and variegated. The art of making a lot from a little is Haydn all over. It whirls and dances with its wits about it."

My complete Haydn Symphonies standards are Adam Fischer's set with the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, and the Haydn 232 set still in progress, with Giovanni Antonini conducting Il Giardino Armonico and Kammerorchester Basel. Heidelberg's Haydn isn't quite in that league, but their set is definitely getting better as it reaches its final volumes.

This disc will be released on January 6, 2023.