‘Das Berliner Requiem’ A Seldom Heard Work of Kurt Weill

I heard excerpts from Kurt Weill`s Second Symphony the other night. I greatly wanted to obtain a copy of this work, but the record store I visited didn`t have one in stock. I was in the grip of Kurt Weill`s art, so some of you might understand how possessed I truly was. I did manage to find a Harmonia Mundi CD with three works, Vom Tod Im Wald, op 23, Konzert fur Violine und Blasorchester, op 12, and Das Berliner Requiem. The text for this last piece was written by Weill`s famous collaborator, Bertolt Brecht.

Das Berliner Requiem was completed in 1928 and was specifically written for the radio, which was the newest medium of the time. Weill believed that the radio would have a liberating effect and would help to equalize the social classes. The work was commissioned by the Frankfurt radio station some ten years after the cessation of hostilities, that we usually refer to as WWI. In the liner notes Pascal Huynh says about one song cycle, “Martyrs-Epitaph is highly characteristic of the Weill-Brecht musical idiom: slow dance rhythm, a saxophone tune, uniform accompaniment, the mixture of interior chromaticism and progression in fifths.”

This is a minimalist piece with just a tenor, baritone, male choir, wind band, guitar, banjo and percussion. Das Berlin Requiem can be seen as a high point in the collaboration of Kurt Weill with Bertolt Brecht. Nonetheless, it has been somewhat neglected by classical-philes, and yet deserves more attention, along with his signature works, The Three Penny Opera and Mahagonny. This is the first time that I have ever heard it, won`t you join me?

Related posts:

1. Lorin Maazel Conducts A Stirring ‘War Requiem’ By Benjamin Britten