10162-2 KURT WEILL AND FRIENDS ON BROADWAY

These discs have been taken from a German Radio Broadcast of the Opening Concert of the 2013 Kurt Weill Fest in Dessau, Germany. The concert was titled “New York, New York” and sought to place Weill amongst his contemporaries on the Broadway stage. Thus we get not only songs from Street Scene, One Touch of Venus, Johnny Johnson and the rest but also works by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Frank Loesser and others. The five young singers are all past winners of the Lotte Lenya Competition and acquit themselves very well. The Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz is conducted by James Holmes, guest conductor at the Festival that year. I think the concert may have been edited to fit the broadcast slot as it ended with a rousing rendition of ‘Oklahoma!’, yet it is not included here. Instead there is a lot of German chat at the conclusion of the broadcast!