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Kurt Weill at London's "Swept Away Festival" with the Continuum Ensemble

Jun. 04, 2015

Kurt Weill at London's "Swept Away Festival" with the Continuum Ensemble

Sleek, jazzy, and very modern: that was the music of 1920's Berlin and Vienna. Yet by 1934, many composers—including Weill—were forced into exile, the Nazi government having denounced them and banned their music. The Continuum Ensemble presents the “Swept Away Festival” at London’s Kings Place, June 19-21, with programs of miniature opera, cabaret songs, and inventive chamber and orchestral music by Kurt Weill, Ernst Toch, and other composers of this lost generation. 


Several Weill works are featured in the Festival: 

  • Vom Tod im Wald (Death in the Forest) and Mahagonny Songspiel are performed in a program entitled “Opera in Miniature: Toch, Weill & Hindemith,” along with Hindemith’s There and Back (Hin und zurück) and Toch’s Egon and Emilie. Philip Headlam, principal conductor and co-artistic director, leads The Continuum Ensemble and soloists on June 19.
  • The BBC Singers join Philip Headlam and The Continuum Ensemble to perform Das Berliner Requiem, a cantata for tenor, baritone, three-part male chorus and wind orchestra. With its politically explosive text by Bertolt Brecht, Weill’s original version fell victim to German censorship. Also on the program are works by Toch, Ernst Krenek, and Stefan Wolpe. June 21, 3 pm.
  • Hugo Ticciati plays Weill’s Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra, op. 12, on a program titled “Orchestral Reinventions” with three U.K. premieres of works by Toch. Philip Headlam conducts The Continuum Ensemble. June 21, 6:30 pm.
  • The Festival concludes with an evening of witty and sophisticated songs from 1920's cabaret, revue, theatre, and film written by Weill, Mischa Spoliansky, Friedrich Hollander, Wilhelm Grosz, and Herbert Zipper. Soprano Anna Dennis and mezzo-soprano Lucy Schaufer are joined by Philip Headlam on piano. June 21, 9 pm. 


A series of talks on art, music, cinema, and cultural life; readings of poetry, drama, and fiction of the period; and a discussion of refugee artists in Europe today round out the Festival weekend. The Swept Away Festival is funded in part by The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc.

For more information on the festival, visit thecontinuumensemble.co.uk.

Visit kwf.org for more information on Kurt Weill. 

Kurt Weill
Vom Tod im Wald, Op. 23 (1927)
ballad for bass solo and ten wind instruments
2cl.bsn.cbsn(bsn)-2hn.2tpt.tbn.btbn
9‘

Mahagonny Songspiel (1927)
Text (Ger) by Bertolt Brecht
English translation by Michael Feingold
2S, 2T, 2B; orchestra
2cl(bcl).asax-2tpt.tbn-timp.perc-pno-2vn
30’

Das Berliner Requiem (1928)
cantata for tenor, baritone, three-part male chorus and wind orchestra
Text (Ger) by Bertolt Brecht
0.0.2.2asax(tsax).2-2.2.2.1(ad lib.)-timp.perc-gtr.banjo.org or harm
21’

Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra, Op. 12 (1924)
2(pic).1.2.2-2.1.0.0-timp.perc-4 double basses
33’  

Paul Hindemith
Hin und zurück (There and Back) (1927)
a sketch with music, op. 45a
text (Ger) by Marcellus Schiffer
English translation by Marion Farquhar
S, 2T, Bar, B, speaker, actor; orchestra
1.0.1.asax.1-0.1.1.0-pno(4hand).pno(2hnd) – backstage: harmonica
12’

Ernst Toch
Egon und Emilie (1928)
a family drama
libretto (Ger) by Christian Morgenstern)
for coloratura soprano, speaker and ensemble
Ebcl.cl.bcl.asax.bsn-tpt.tba
15’

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