Louis Armstrong Jazzomotes Kurt Weill

Kurt Weill

Source: All Music

Born on 2 March 1900 in Dessau, Germany, Kurt Weill began piano lessons and first endeavored to compose at age twelve. His major musical associate and wife was singer, Lotte Lenya, whom he met in 1922 and married in 1926. Though divorcing in 1933, they remarried in 1937 until Weill's death in 1950.

Weill's earliest surviving manuscript is 'Mi Addir', a Jewish wedding song estimated to 1913. He first performed in public in 1915. 'Zriny', his first opera, appeared in 1916, since lost as is his second, 'Ninon von Lenclos', of 1920. The Berliner Hochschule für Musik received him in 1918 to study composition, conducting, counterpoint and philosophy. He wrote his first string quartet that year as well, that WoO in B minor which isn't thought to have been performed until 9 Sep 1975 in Berlin by the Melos-Quartett (1965-2005). Employed as a répétiteur at the Friedrich-Theater in Dessau in 1919, he became Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater in Lüdenscheid later that year. Weill studied beneath Ferruccio Busoni from 1920 to 1923. His first of two symphonies appeared during that period, a piano four-hand version performed in Busoni's master class in autumn 1921. The orchestral version didn't see performance until 1958 in Hamburg by the Norddeutsche Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester conducted by Wilhelm Schüchter.

'Symphony No.1'   1 Movement   Kurt Weill   1921

Gewandhausorchester Leipzig directed by Edo De Waart

Weill began to take on students in 1923. It was 24 June of that year that the Amar Quartett premiered his 'String Quartet No.1' Op 8 in Frankfurt.

'String Quartet No.1'   Op 8   Kurt Weill   1923

Premiere by the Amar Quartett in Frankfurt 24 June 1923

Brandis Quartet

From 1924 to 1929 Weill wrote reviews for 'Der Deutsche Rundfunk', a radio program guide. His 'Die Dreigroschenoper' ('The Threepenny Opera') is probably his most famous work, premiering in Berlin on 31 August 1928 w lyrics by Bertolt Brecht based on John Gay's 1728 'The Beggar's Opera'. 'The Threepenny Opera' opens and closes with 'Die Moritat von Mackie Messer' that eventually got rewritten as 'The Ballad of Mack the Knife' by Marc Blitzstein, his English translations heard at the off-Broadway Theatre de Lys in 1954. The next year on 28 September 'Mack the Knife' was recorded by Louis Armstrong, launching it as a jazz standard. He recorded a version w Lotte Lenya on the same day.

'Die Dreigroschenoper'   ('The Threepenny Opera')   Kurt Weill

Premiere directed by Erich Engel in Berlin 31 Aug 1928   Conducted by Theo Mackeben

RIAS Kammerchor w the RIAS Berlin Sinfonietta led by John Mauceri

'Die Moritat von Mackie Messer'   From 'Die Dreigroschenoper'   Sung by Kurt Gerron sometime 1928

'Die Moritat von Mackie Messer'   From 'Die Dreigroschenoper'   Sung by Harald Paulsen

Recorded Sep 1928   Issued on Homocord 4-3747 (Germany) 1929

'Die Moritat von Mackie Messer'   From 'Die Dreigroschenoper'   Sung by Bertolt Brecht 1930

Issued on Orchestrola 2131

'Mack the Knife'   ('Die Moritat von Mackie Messer')   Louis Armstrong

Recorded 28 Sep 1955   Issued on Columbia 40587

'Mack the Knife'   ('Die Moritat von Mackie Messer')   Louis Armstrong & Lotte Lenya

Recorded 28 Sep 1955   Issued on Columbia Columbia 4-41471

'Ballad of Mack the Knife'   ('Die Moritat von Mackie Messer')   Amsterdam Wind Quintet

Theater Peeriscoop in Gorinchem, Netherlands   29 May 2016

Backing up to the thirties, 'Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny' ('Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny') was a political satire with another libretto by Brecht that premiered at the Neues Theater in Leipzig on 9 March 1930. 'Mahagonny' something summarizes the debauchery and greed of the Weimar Republic to which Hitler put an end in 1933.

'Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny'   ('Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny')   Kurt Weill 1927-31

Premiere directed by Walter Brügmann in Leipzig 9 March 1930   Conducted by Gustav Brecher

Performance above by the North German Radio C & O w Lotte Lenya as Jenny

Being Jewish, Weill fled Germany for Paris in March 1933 upon Nazi interference with his work. He there premiered his ballet chanté (sung ballet), 'Seven Deadly Sins', on 7 June 1933 with another satirical libretto by Brecht, this concerning a young woman who is both Anna I and Anna II as she keeps falling into sin while attempting to make some money. Weill's 'Symphony No.2' premiered in Amsterdam the next near.

'Die Sieben Todsünden'   ('The Seven Deadly Sins')   Kurt Weill

Premiere conducted by Maurice Abravanel in Paris 7 June 1933   Choreogrphy by George Balanchine

Performance above by the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Leipzig directed by Herbert Kegel

'Symphony No.2'   ('Fantaisie Symphonique')   Kurt Weill

Premiere by Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Bruno Walter in Amsterdam 11 Oct 1934

Performance above by the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig directed by Edo De Waart

In 1935 Weill took work to London before moving to New York City w Lenya in September. His move to America would see a major shift in style as he departed from European influence toward American popular music. His opera, 'Der Weg der Verheißung' ('The Eternal Road'), was a great success at the Manhattan Opera House on 7 Jan 1937. With libretto by Austrian author, Franz Werfel, translated into English by Ludwig Lewisohn, its Biblical theme was set in a Jewish synagogue during a pogrom.

'Song of Ruth'   From 'The Eternal Road'   Lotte Lenya   1957

'Der Weg der Verheissung'   ('The Road of Promise')   Kurt Weill   1934-35

Premiered as 'The Eternal Road' in Manhattan 7 Jan 1937

Premiere directed by Max Reinhardt   Conducted by Isaac van Grove

During World War II Weill worked as an air raid warden in New York. The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 by the time Weill wrote the first three of four 'Walt Whitman Songs' in 1942, adding the last, 'Come Up from the Fields, Father', in 1947.

'Walt Whitman Songs'   Kurt Weill   1942/47   Baritone: Wolfgang Holzmair

Robert-Schumann-Kammerorchester w the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker

Directed by Marc-Andreas Schlingensiepent

Weill's final work for stage was 'Lost in the Stars' first performed at the Music Box Theatre in NYC on 30 October 1949 for a run of 280 more shows. The work in two acts is set in South Africa with book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson based on Alan Paton's 1948 'Cry, the Beloved Country'. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian, music was conducted by Maurice Levine.

'Lost in the Stars'   From 'Lost in the Stars'   Lotte Lenya   1957

'Lost in the Stars'   From 'Lost in the Stars'   Judy Garland   1958

'The Judy Garland Show'   Episode 24

Weill didn't live long enough to finish his work for Maxwell Anderson’s 'Raft on the River'. Gleaned from that, however, is 'Five Songs for Huckleberry Finn' for voice and piano as well as orchestra, the latter first performed posthumously by Randolph Symonette in NYC on 2 March 1952 to orchestration by Robert Russell Bennett conducted by Maurice Levine.

'River Chanty'   From 'Five Songs for Huckleberry Finn'   Baritone: Ian Greenlaw

Gershwin Hotel in NYC 18 Feb 2011

Weill had died in New York City on 3 April 1950 upon a heart attack.