Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
Die Sieben Todsünden (1933)
Vom Tod im Wald, Op.23 (1927)
‘Lonely House’ (Street Scene) (1947)
‘Beat! Beat! Drums!’; ‘Dirge for Two Veterans’ (Four Whitman Songs) (1942-47)
Kleine Dreigroschenmusik (1929)
Magdalena Kožená (mezzo-soprano), Andrew Staples (tenor), Alessandro Fisher (tenor), Ross Ramgobin (baritone), Florian Boesch (bass-baritone)
London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle
rec. live, 28 April 2022, Barbican Hall, London, UK
German texts & English translations included
LSO Live LSO0880 SACD [77]
Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins (to use its English title) has always seemed to me to a be a fascinating fusion of classical music combined with acerbic fusions of jazz and musical theater styles. This gives it a catchy and tuneful sound profile while the entire work functions like the chorus in a Greek tragedy, as it comments on the events it bears witness to. The events in question are a journey which takes the protagonist (Anna 1), and her sister (Anna 2- a dancing role) through seven American cities over the course of seven years, all the while observing examples of the seven sins delineated in religious texts. The two sisters are accompanied along this journey by a quartet of male singers (in a strange twist on the tradition of the Barbershop quartet) who represent the family of the two Annas. To read this account on paper it doesn’t appear to be very promising stuff and yet this strange little song and dance drama pushed Weill to create one of the most consistently admired scores of his entire career. Die Sieben Todsünden easily vies with Die Dreigroschenoper as his most frequently recorded work.
This live performance from the LSO catches Sir Simon and his orchestra towards the end of his tenure as the Music Director of the London Symphony, which came to an end in 2023. As my colleague John Quinn noted in his very favourable review of this disc, this was likely a series of concerts which helped to celebrate the Conductor’s 70th birthday. On listening to the disc it certainly has the aura of a celebratory occasion hanging around it. It’s a curious fact to point out that this is not the first time that Rattle has recorded Weill’s song and dance sinfest with his concurrent spouse. The first recording (for EMI) was with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and featured and his wife at that time, Elise Ross. It is certainly an interesting coincidence.
Die Sieben Todsünden can be performed in two versions: the version originally composed for a soprano (although the part sits comfortably for most mezzos to cope with) and the revision the composer made to accommodate his wife Lotte Lenya’s limited cabaret style vocal range, which was the version used for the Paris premiere in 1933. There are several notable recordings in existence of both versions.
This new SACD features a remarkable lead performance from Magdalena Kožená. On the strength of her performance of Weills’ music there can be no accusation of nepotism leveled at the conductor. Kožená (singing the soprano version) carries the listener along with a sparkling voice which literally dances through the work as its rhythms change and shift. Her timbre is smoky to the point of being sultry. She is reminiscent at times of another smoky-toned soprano, Teresa Stratas, on Kent Nagano’s Erato recording. The comparison ends there because Stratas’ fragility and vulnerability is something quite unique which to my mind no other singer has been able to emulate. One of the finest touches in Kožená’s performance is in how she lowers her natural speaking voice to try to convey to the listener that Anna 2 is a wholly separate person from Anna 1. Switching back and forth and adjusting her range can’t have been easy for her. For my money Kožená is at her best in the incisive way she sings her lines during the Anger episode.
The quartet of male soloists who represent the family of the two Annas sound appropriately punchy in their music which is fascinatingly calculated by Weill to grate against one’s nerves as the work progresses. Thankfully as none of them get the opportunityto make an impression in the quartet; we get to hear all of the soloists in a single work on the same disc. My favorite among the solo pieces is Florian Boesch’s shattering performance of Vom Tod im Wald (Death in the Forest). The bleakness of this piece is well conveyed by Boesch’s brooding intensity backed up by the splendid sound engineering which captures the orchestra’s contribution quite vividly.
I am less pleased with Andrew Staples’ lovely sounding version of Lonely Town. This is an iconic Weill piece that is very tied to its New York City locale. Staples disappoints by not attempting to disguise his very classy sounding British accent. However, I am willing to concede that I may be being a bit harsh on this tenor, whose gorgeous voice is definitely worth hearing in this music. Alternatively, Ross Ramgobin’s solo ‘Beat! Beat! Drums!’ I cannot recommend because the baritone sounds distinctly over-parted by the range required for this piece.
I have yet to mention the performance of Sir Simon. If this was the only recording by Rattle that I had ever encountered I would tempted to think he was on his way to becoming the new Toscanini. However Rattle has had a number of ups and downs along his recording career. This release is definitely one of the ups. His pacing of the orchestra in Die Sieben Todsünden is nothing short of superb, especially the vividly evocative way he captures the edgy waltz rhythms. His account of the Kleine Dreigroschenmusik is, if anything, even better than the main work on the program. His colourful, nuanced leadership of these little orchestral vignettes puts this among his best recorded performances. The sound engineering of this SACD (I listened to the 2 channel, Hi-Definition layer) captures all of the acerbic pungency of this oddly charming suite of dance music.
The competition among the various recordings of Die Sieben Todsünden is pretty stiff.The soprano version has also been recorded by the likes of Angelina Reaux (with Kurt Masur), Brigitte Fassbaender (with Cord Garben), Anne Sofie von Otter (for John Eliot Gadiner), and the EMI one with Elise Ross; not to forget and the aforementioned Stratas recording (with Kent Nagano). Rattle’s new version has more bite than either the Gardiner or Nagano (who sounds distinctly placid in this music at times). However, Rattle’s earlier version is still a strong contender against this one because of the superb EMI sound and the almost virginal vocal timbre of Soprano Elise Ross as the two Annas, which provides an interesting contrast against Kožená vocal qualities here. The versions that use Lenya’s cabaret vocal range are led by Lenya herself and she is rather gritty sounding in comparison to Kožená. Ute Lemper’s Decca version has never appealed to me despite her colourful way with the words and music. My preference for the cabaret version remains with the fabulously grimy, world-weary sound of the late Marianne Faithful, singing in English, with Dennis Russell Davies on Sony (review). One cannot forget to mention the odd-duck recording by Michael Tilson-Thomas, which features star lyric soprano Julia Migenes and the LSO, (also paired with the Little Threepenny Music). Migenes was one of the most notable singers of Alban Berg’s Lulu in her day, yet she chose to record not the soprano version of Weill’s score but instead chose the much harder task (for a lyric-coloratura) of negotiating her voce through the cabaret version. It is one of the more unique recordings on the market; it still has its attractions but may not be to everyone’s taste.
Mike Parr
Previous review: John Quinn (February 2025)
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