OPUS KLASSIK 2025 Conductor of the Year • GRAMOPHONE CLASSICAL MUSIC AWARDS 2025 Orchestral
Featuring
Joana Mallwitz
Michael Porter
Simon Bode
Michael Nagl
Oliver Zwarg
Katharine Mehrling
Konzerthausorchester Berlin
Kurt Weill
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Composer Biography
Kurt Weill, one of the 20th century's most influential composers, died suddenly from a heart attack in New York on April 3, 1950, shortly after his 50th birthday.
Historical Context
The score for Weill's First Symphony was sent to an Italian convent for safekeeping when the Nazis came to power, and the nuns removed its title page to protect the Jewish composer's identity.
Composition History
Kurt Weill's First Symphony was not rediscovered until after his death and premiered in 1958, having been hidden in an Italian convent for safekeeping during the Nazi era.
Performer Biography
Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill's widow, launched an appeal that led to the return of his First Symphony score after the war, and she sang the role of Anna I in the premiere of 'The Seven Deadly Sins'.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Kurt Weill defined theatre music as something that provides 'food for thought,' encouraging listeners to think about the piece and determining its dramaturgy through formal musical forces.
Composition History
Weill began his Second Symphony in Berlin in early 1933 and completed it in Paris, his first stop after fleeing Nazi Germany, finishing it at the same time as his work 'The Seven Deadly Sins'.
Compositional Technique
Brecht and Weill's 'The Seven Deadly Sins' is a 'ballet chanté' that divides the role of Anna into a Seller and a Commodity to illustrate the hopelessness of the individual in a bourgeois capitalist society.
