MJ Walker wrote:
> I was going to snobbishly say that the original Seeräuber Jenny,
> Carola Neher, made the best recording, but then I put on the old LP
> (with Brecht's own recording of "Moritat" - Mackie Messer) & listened
> to her & (early) Lenya in succession - Lotte is the tops. (I agree
> Marianne is very good in her way.) Though I must say my very favourite
> Brecht/Weill recording is in English - Cathy Berberian's "Song of
> sexual slavery", which she translated herself, I believe - the English
> is at least as good as the German (a fairly unique case.), and Berio's
> instrumentation superb. And Milva's version of the same in Italian is
> wild, think Anna Magnani.
> Poachum ;-)
Mea culpa. I know very little about Berberian, and certainly did not
know about her Weill connection. I associate her with florid Baroque.
I also heard a probably hot set of mp3s of a concert where she recreated
a 19th century English house party recital, singing some perfectly
atrocious ballads, some straight and some as send-ups. A few she
deliberately mangled, others overcame the material and were exquisite.
Ken
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