Kurt Weill’s musical theatre works enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime, so much so that he authorized his publishers to assign arrangers to make dance band versions of many of the songs. Call this a “crossover” disc with a difference: versions authorized by the composer, played by a period performance band dedicated to resuscitating dance music of the 1920s and 1930s, conducted by Weill specialist, singer, composer, and conductor H.K. Gruber. Before playing the disc I thought it a dubious undertaking, a prejudiced view that was dispelled within 10 seconds of listening to the first track, “Mile After Mile” from Railroads on Parade, a rarely heard pageant written for the 1939 World’s Fair. After that, it’s one delightful song after another–19 in all–immaculately played with a sense of fun and zest. After the third or fourth track I felt as if I were in a 1930s film, sitting in the art deco ballroom of a transatlantic luxury ocean liner, watching elegant, tuxedoed Fred Astaire types skim along the shiny ballroom floor with beautiful, gowned blondes in their arms while the band swings away with controlled abandon.
Best of all are the tracks where Max Raabe, the Palast Orchestra’s vocalist, sings a chorus or two of the lyrics in a heady light tenor that often dips into a falsetto. He does the German songs like the “Bilbao Song” from Happy End or the “Tango Ballade” from Threepenny Opera with relish, wrapping his voice around each umlaut; and he performs the English tunes like “September Song” from Knickerbocker Holiday and “Speak Low” from One Touch of Venus with tenderness and virtually accentless diction. The final track is an instrumental version of Threepenny Opera’s “Kanonen-Song”, bursting with vitality. The sound is first-class, capturing the timbre and pokey rhythms of the band with lifelike clarity.
Some might complain that the dance band arrangements leach the venom from Weill’s originals. My advice: lighten up and enjoy them for what they–and Weill–intended them to be. I’m not sure whether this disc can be filed under guilty pleasures or just plain pleasures, but it’s a delight from start to finish. [6/20/2001]
