By JD88992
20-Sep-2011

Early Weill, early recordings  

The “cast album” was still years off when The Threepenny Opera opened, but most of the contemporary recordings by its first performers are gathered here. Other selections largely date from the early part of Weill’s career, before he and his wife Lotte Lenya escaped the Nazis and settled in the U.S. Those who only know Lenya’s voice as the sprechstimme foghorn of her later years may be surprised to hear her as a rather reedy soprano.

She also sings eight songs accompanied by the composer at the piano. These two discs were originally issued separately, and are now combined into a budget package. Unfortunately, all the texts have been jettisoned, while keeping the dreadful translation of the notes (singers referred to as “popular French diseases”), and one track omitted from the listing of disc two. There’s more record hiss than you generally get on reissues of this type, but the engineers have kept the solo voices clear and prominent, so the collector will still want to have this set.
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