Composer: Kurt Weill
Performer: Tomás Kocsis
Orchestra: Ulster Orchestra
Conductor: Jac van Steen
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Somm
Catalogue: SOMMCD 280
Release: 2022
Size: 0.98 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Symphony No. 2 ‘Symphonic Fantasy’
01. I. Sostenuto – Allegro molto
02. II. Largo
03. III. Allegro vivace
Concerto for Violin & Wind Orchestra, Op. 12
04. I. Andante con moto
05. IIa. Notturno. Allegro un poco tenuto
06. IIb. Cadenza. Moderato
07. IIc. Serenata. Allegretto
08. III. Allegro molto, un poco agitato
Although Weill found fame in theatre-focused collaborations with Bertolt Brecht that produced the era-defining The Threepenny Opera, the onetime pupil of Ferruccio Busoni straddled the worlds of music-theatre, jazz, and the concert hall with music of daring aplomb and dazzling achievement.
Dedicated to Joseph Szigeti, his five-movement Violin Concerto of 1924 also pays tribute to the ailing Busoni and sports discernible allusions to Stravinsky, Mahler and the potent popular music of Weimar Berlin’s cabaret clubs. A unique blend, as Robert Matthew-Walker comments in his authoritative booklet notes: “No comparable work had appeared before from any composer”.
Composed a decade later, the Second Symphony was premiered by Bruno Walter and the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. In three movements, “Weill’s contrapuntal mastery and his equally unselfconscious command of instrumentation present us with genuinely symphonic music, such as a 20th-century Haydn would have appreciated and enjoyed”.