Kurt Weill - Symphonies; Quodlibet (Antony Beaumont)

Information

Composer: Kurt Weill

• Symphony No. 1
• Quodlibet, Op. 9
• Symphony No. 2

Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen

Antony Beaumont, conductor

Date: 2006

Label: Chandos

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Review

Kurt Weill's two Symphonies - dating from 1921 and 1934 - form an effective frame for the more familiar stage works of his Weimar Republic period. Both are highly charged, political scores.

The First is programmatic and envisions the emergence of a utopian, pacifist society in the aftermath of war and revolution. It is feverishly expressionistic, though Weill's inspiration wasn't always quite up to the subject. The Second, which was begun in Berlin and completed in Paris, is one of his greatest scores - fierce in its angry nostalgia and tentatively looking forward to the possibilities of a new life in exile. Both are given incisive, pungent performances from the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under conductor-musicologist Antony Beaumont.

Quodlibet, dating from 1923, meanwhile, reworks music from a ballet based on the same story as Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. It is exquisitely played and provides some light relief from the determined intensity of Weill's other two works.

— Tim Ashley

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Kurt Weill (March 2, 1900 – April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer. He showed early musical talent and received formal training in Berlin, studying under teachers including Engelbert Humperdinck and Ferruccio Busoni. Weill rose to prominence in Germany through collaborations with playwrights like Georg Kaiser and especially Bertolt Brecht, with whom he created The Threepenny Opera (1928). However, as a Jewish composer, his career in Germany was cut short by the rise of the Nazi regime. Fleeing to the U.S. in 1935, Weill became a key figure on Broadway, collaborating with top American writers.

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Antony Beaumont (born 27 January 1949 in London) is an English musicologist, writer and conductor. After studying at Cambridge and working as a critic and BBC musician, he moved to Germany, where he held orchestral posts and pursued conducting. His principal impact lies in scholarship, particularly on Ferruccio Busoni and Alexander Zemlinsky. He completed Busoni's Doktor Faust, published influential collections of Busoni's letters, and produced a widely praised biography of Zemlinsky alongside a standard completion of Der König Kandaules. Beaumont also edited writings of Gustav Mahler and Alma Mahler Werfel.

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