Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
The Seven Deadly Sins (1933)
The New Orpheus (1925)
Violin Concerto (1924)
Swedish Chamber Orchestra/HK Gruber
rec. 2023/24, Ӧrebro Concert Hall, Ӧrebro, Sweden
Sung in English. English texts included
BIS BIS2779 SACD [80]

The “sung ballet” The Seven Deadly Sins was the last of the Brecht-Weill collaborations. I consider it the best of them, and arguably the best of all Weill’s works, even if they wrote it quite quickly when they were both in exile in Paris in 1933; also, Brecht lost interest almost immediately. It was a commission by the short-lived ballet company Les Ballets, which Boris Kochno and George Balanchine set up after the death of Diaghilev. They wanted a work which would feature the dancer Tilly Losch.

In a single act that lasts just over half an hour, the work dramatises the adventures of two sisters, or possibly one person with her alter ego. Anna I, a singer, and Anna II, a dancer, work their way through the seven deadly sins in seven American cities. Their aim is to earn enough to establish themselves in a little house in Louisiana. A male voice quartet, which represents the Family, proffer moralizing advice.

Brechtians regard this as a minor work of his, but Weill’s music makes it compelling listening. It has all the bite of his best work, plus good tunes and a haunting sense of melancholy. Weill originally wrote the part of Anna I for high voice, but in the 1950s Lotte Lenya, his widow, recorded it unforgettably in a version transposed downwards. Since then, both the high-voice version and the low-voice one remain in circulation. As well as Lenya’s recording, there is a memorable low-voice one by Gisela May, and high-voice versions by Brigitte Fassbaender and Anne Sofie von Otter, among others. I should add that HK Gruber, the conductor in this recording, has also made a reduced orchestra version, but here he seems to be using the original score for chamber orchestra plus harp, piano and banjo.

What is unusual about this recording is that it is sung in English, in the version by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman. They had some interesting comments: they pointed out that the work ‘is set in a contemporary but mythical America’, so ‘a contemporary American diction is called for but it must not be too specifically so or the mythical element will disappear’. (This is in Auden’s book of essays The Dyer’s Hand.) As a result, their version is not a literal translation. They replaced some of Brecht’s German terms with American terms they considered more appropriate. I think this is the only recording so far to be sung in English.

The performance is superb. The Irish-Canadian soprano Wallis Giunta sings Anna I. She has performed the work often. A live recording is coming out soon, in which she sings the role in German. This is the high-voice version, and she is completely on top of it. She also differentiates her voice for the occasional interjections by Anna II. The Family carry out their role with aplomb. The orchestra play with superb zip and rhythmic precision, enjoying the occasional louche moments.

Next we have The New Orpheus, a much earlier work. This is an expressionist cantata for soprano, solo violin and a chamber orchestra without violins. The text is by Iwan Goll, here sung in David Pountney’s English translation. It puts Orpheus in the modern world, in which he travels through various venues, including a suburban street, a cabaret, a circus, a dance hall, a sacristy and the Eiffel Tower. He loses his Eurydice, as in the traditional version, and finds himself alone in a waiting room. The soprano here is Jennifer France, who does what she can with the solo role in a work which I find unsatisfactory, with the different idioms imperfectly integrated.

Finally we have the Violin Concerto, one of Weill’s few works of abstract music. He wrote it shortly after the death of Ferruccio Busoni, who had been his composition teacher, and the work is full of allusions to Busoni’s works. It is in the traditional three movements but the orchestra only comprises wind instruments, percussion and double basses. The first movement opens with clarinets, and the soloist gradually adds an anguished lyrical line. In the central movement, divided into three parts, the soloist maintains a dialogue with an orchestral instrument, a xylophone in Notturno, a trumpet in Cadenza and a flute in Serenata. The finale is a tarantella.

As well as Busoni’s influence, there is also some Schoenberg in the expressionist lyrical writing, and Stravinsky in the rhythmic vivacity and drive, particularly in the last movement. Along with the two symphonies, this tough and sinewy work shows how Weill might have developed had he not adopted popular dance rhythms and later reinvented himself as a Broadway composer. Benjamin Herzl is completely on top of the solo part in this rewarding work.

Composer and conductor HK Gruber secures sparkling playing from the Swedish forces. This is an SACD but I was listening in ordinary two channel stereo; the sound was crystal clear. The booklet has texts and notes in English, French and German; this does not leave enough room for full biographies. The cover picture, by Max Beckmann, is very fetching.

The Seven Deadly Sins is the main work here, and singing in English gives this version a particular interest, beyond the excellence of the performance. HK Gruber has made several previous recordings of Weill; this latest one shows he is completely in command of the idiom and delivers stylish results.

Stephen Barber

Soloists
Seven Deadly Sins
Wallis Giunta (soprano), Mats Carlsson (tenor), Love Tronner (tenor), Lars Johansson Brissman (bass), Andreas Olsson (bass)

The New Orpheus
Jennifer France (soprano), Katarina Andreasson (violin)

Violin Concerto
Benjamin Herzl (violin)

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