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2015 Kurt Weill Fest: "From Lied to Song"

Feb. 03, 2015

2015 Kurt Weill Fest: "From Lied to Song"

The Kurt Weill Fest Dessau, held annually in Weill’s birthplace, focuses this year on the relationship between music and text with the theme, “From Lied to Song.” The 2015 festival features nearly sixty events and runs from February 17 through March 15.

Here are just a few of the highlights:

• “Brave Soldier Johnny” 
For the opening gala, Kristjan Järvi conducts the MDR Symphony Orchestra and an international cast in a new concert adaptation of Weill and Paul Green’s 1936 Broadway musical, Johnny Johnson*. February 27.

• “Lights on Broadway”
Lenya Competition winners Alen Hodzovic and Rebecca Jo Loeb team up with Weill expert James Holmes at the piano to perform an evening of song at the Bauhaus Dessau. February 28.

• Die Dreigroschenoper
HK Gruber leads the Ensemble Modern in two concert performances of Weill and Brecht’s classic, featuring Simon Bode (Macheath), HK Gruber (Mr. Peachum), Hanna Schwarz (Mrs. Peachum), Ute Gfrerer (Polly), Winnie Böwe (Lucy), Hannes Hellman (Tiger Brown), and Sona MacDonald (Jenny). March 1-2.

• Four Walt Whitman Songs
Antony Hermus conducts the Anhaltische Philharmonic Orchestra with soloists and chorus of the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau in a program that features Weill’s four settings of Walt Whitman poems, as well as works by Vaughan Williams, Elgar, and the premiere of a new work by Ed Harsh. March 5.

• Royal Palace
The closing concert of the Fest boasts music by Richard Strauss and a concert performance of Weill's early one-act opera, Royal Palace. 15 March.

United States Performance Highlights
In New York, Music Director George Manahan conducts the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in a program that features The Seven Deadly Sins with Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) as Anna I and Hudson Shad as the Family (February 27). On the West coast, Jacaranda Chamber Ensemble performs Kleine Dreigroschenmusik and Weill’s Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra, featuring violinist Alyssa Park. Led by Daniel Alfred Wachs and Mark Alan Hilt, the program also includes works by Hindemith, Stravinsky, and Milhaud (Santa Monica, February 21).

*Johnny Johnson, available in new performing materials from the new critical edition (Kurt Weill Edition, Series I, Volume 13) is now being licensed for performance in the U.S. and Canada by European American Music. 

For more information on Kurt Weill Fest 2015, visit kurt-weill-fest.de. 

Details on Kurt Well can be found at kwf.org.

Kurt Weill
Johnny Johnson (1936)
a play with music in three acts
text (Eng) by Paul Green
Reed 1(cl, Ebcl, bcl).Reed 2(cl, bcl, asax, bsax)-2tpt.tbn-timp.perc-Hammond org(pno)-gtr(banjo)-2vn.vc
65' 

The Threepenny Opera (1928)
play with music after John Gay's The Beggar's Opera; in three acts
German translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann
adaptation and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht
2S, 2Mz, T, Bar, B-Bar and speaking roles
asax(fl, cl, bsax).tsax(ssax, bsn, bcl)-tpt.tbn(db)-banjo(vc, gtr, Hawaiian gtr, mandolin, bandoneon)-timp/perc (tpt 2)-harm (cel, pno)
full evening 

Four Walt Whitman Songs (1942-1947)
for high or low voice and orchestra
text (Eng) by Walt Whitman
orchestral accompaniment by Kurt Weill, Irving Schlein and Carlos Surinach
2.1.2.bcl.1-2.2.2.0-timp.2perc-hp-str
18’

Royal Palace (1925-26)
opera in one act
libretto (Ger) by Iwan Goll
for dramatic soprano, soprano, 2 basses, baritone, 2 tenors and female chorus
2.pic.2.2.3(cbsn).asax-4.2.2.1-timp.perc-str
Stage Orchestra: glockenspiel, 5 bells, celesta, piano, harp, perc, pitched auto horn
45' 

The Seven Deadly Sins (1933)
ballet chanté in nine scenes
lyrics (Ger) by Bertolt Brecht


for soprano, 2 tenors, baritone, bass, dancer and corps de ballet
2(2pic).1.2.1-2.2.1.1-timp.perc-hp.pno.bnj(gtr)-str


35'

Kleine Dreigroschenmusik (Little Threepenny Music) (1929)
suite from Die Dreigroschenoper for wind orchestra
2(pic).2.asax.tsax.sax(ssax).2-2.0.1.1-timp.perc-bnj.gtr(or harp).acc.pno
22’

Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra (1924)
2(pic).1.2.2-2.1.0.0-timp.perc-4 double basses
33’  

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