The Kurt Weill Album Konzerthausorchester Berlin & Joana Mallwitz

• Kurt Weill (1900 - 1950): Symphony No. 1 "Berliner Sinfonie":
• 1Weill: Symphony No. 1 "Berliner Sinfonie": Grave. Breit und wuchtig -02:55
• 2Weill: Symphony No. 1 "Berliner Sinfonie": Allegro vivace. Wild, heftig -07:17
• 3Weill: Symphony No. 1 "Berliner Sinfonie": Andante religioso -04:47
• 4Weill: Symphony No. 1 "Berliner Sinfonie": Larghetto. Ruhig, ohne Leidenschaft09:19
• Die sieben Todsünden:
• 5Weill: Die sieben Todsünden: Prolog03:27
• 6Weill: Die sieben Todsünden: I. Faulheit04:05
• 7Weill: Die sieben Todsünden: II. Stolz04:02
• 8Weill: Die sieben Todsünden: III. Zorn04:12
• 9Weill: Die sieben Todsünden: IV. Völlerei02:58
• 10Weill: Die sieben Todsünden: V. Unzucht04:54
• 11Weill: Die sieben Todsünden: VI. Habsucht02:53
• 12Weill: Die sieben Todsünden: VII. Neid04:26
• 13Weill: Die sieben Todsünden: Epilog01:29
• Symphony No. 2:
• 14Weill: Symphony No. 2: I. Sostenuto - Allegro molto09:12
• 15Weill: Symphony No. 2: II. Largo10:22
• 16Weill: Symphony No. 2: III. Allegro vivace06:27
• Total Runtime01:22:45

Info for The Kurt Weill Album

Joana Mallwitz places the music of Kurt Weill at the centre of her Deutsche Grammophon debut album. As the first female chief conductor of a major Berlin orchestra, it is very important to her to dedicate the recording to a composer whose name is synonymous with the city of Berlin. "The Kurt Weill Album" presents three works that the conductor recorded together with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin: Symphony No. 1 "Berliner Symphonie", Symphony No. 2 "Fantaisie symphonique" and "Die Sieben Todsünden". The latter, based on texts by Bertolt Brecht, was premiered in Paris in June 1933. As Mallwitz notes, this satirical ballet with song in seven scenes with a prologue and epilogue tells the story of a young woman whose personality has been broken in two by her greedy, abusive family. Katharine Mehrling sings Anna I & II, the other roles are sung by tenors Michael Porter and Simon Bode, baritone Michael Nagl and bass-baritone Oliver Zwarg.

"Kurt Weill achieved something that only truly great composers manage - to create their own style. There is a sound and harmony in his music that you always recognise, a roughness and complexity that I really appreciate," says Joana Mallwitz, explaining her preference for the composer. Similar to the first, his second symphony is also a rarely performed work, so that this season's Weill focus may bring you two discoveries at once. Weill's satirical ballet with song "The Seven Deadly Sins", on the other hand, is a well-known masterpiece that corresponds thematically with the introductory "Dance of the Seven Veils" from Richard Strauss' "Salome": "I am looking forward to the singer and actress Katharine Mehrling, who also expresses the wildness of the piece in scenic elements - an ideal cast!" (Joana Mallwitz)

Katharine Mehrling, voice
Michael Porter, tenor
Simon Bode, tenor
Michael Nagl, baritone
Oliver Zwarg, bass-baritone
Konzerthausorchester Berlin
Joana Mallwitz, conductor

Katharine Mehrling
studied acting and musical theatre at the London Studio Centre and at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York. She made her stage debut in London's West End in "Hair". She has played numerous leading roles such as Sugar Kane in "Some Like It Hot" at the Bern City Theatre, Polly in "The Threepenny Opera" and Eponine in "Les Misérables" at the Saarland State Theatre in Saarbrücken, Lucy in "Jekyll & Hyde" at the Magdeburg Theatre, the title role in "Evita" at the Bielefeld Theatre, Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl" at the Dortmund Opera, the Nuremberg State Theatre and the Chemnitz Theatre, and Katharina/Lilli Vanessi in "Kiss me, Kate" at the Bad Hersfeld Festival. She created the role of Tippi Hedren in the musical "The Birds of Alfred Hitchcock" by William Ward Murta, which was written especially for her and premiered at the Bielefeld Theatre in 2010.

Katharine Mehrling has lived in Berlin since 2000 and has since performed the title role in "Irma la Douce", Emma in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one-woman musical "Stay Until Sunday" and the title role in "Piaf". She played Sally Bowles in "Cabaret" in the Bar jeder Vernunft in over 250 performances. At the Schlossparktheater she appeared as Little Erna in "Pinkelstadt", as Ottilie von Henkeshofen in "Wie einmal im Mai", as Lilian in "Die Drei von der Tankstelle" and as Amnesia in "Non(n)sens". The ensemble was awarded the Berlin theater prize "Golden Curtain" in 2010 for the song drama "Ewig jung" at the Renaissance Theater, in which she plays the 95-year-old Mrs. Mehrling.

In her first solo program "Hommages", Katharine Mehrling devotes herself to her love of French chanson. To do this, she lived in Paris for a while and followed in the footsteps of Piaf. After her second program "Bonsoir, Katharine!", which she presented at the Bar jeder Vernunft and other venues, she held the record release party for her first album with her own songs at the Tipi am Kanzleramt in Berlin. She wrote the album "Am Rande der Nacht" together with jazz legend Rolf Kühn and produced it in the Hansa Studios in Berlin. In 2011, Hessischer Rundfunk presented "An evening with Katharine Mehrling and the HR Big Band" in the large broadcasting hall. She then spent two months on stage at the Wintergarten Variety Show in Berlin in her personality show "Am Rande der Nacht", together with her band, dancers, international artists and special guest Rolf Kühn. For this, she was awarded the Lale Andersen Prize in Bremerhaven by Gitte Haenning in 2012.

Katharine Mehrling is a multiple winner of the national singing competition, was the jury president of the competition in 2013 and hosted the prizewinners' gala at the Friedrichstadtpalast. For her portrayal of Judy Garland in the play "End of the Rainbow" at the Berlin Schlossparktheater and for her debut at the Komische Oper Berlin as jazz composer Daisy Darlington in the operetta "Ball im Savoy", she was again awarded the audience prize "Golden Curtain", this time as the most popular actress of the 2012/13 theater season. In 2014 she returned to the Komische Oper as rancher Lona Farell in the concert premiere of the Emmerich Kálmán operetta "Arizona Lady" and presented her latest CD "Piaf au Bar" with concerts at the Bar jeder Vernunft.

In the Bryan Singer film "Operation Valkyrie - The Stauffenberg Assassination", Katharine Mehrling can be seen as a singer in the officers' club and can be heard on John Ottman's film soundtrack with the song "For a Night of Bliss". In the 2014 Christmas episode of the ZDF television classic "The Dream Ship", she played the role of Jenny Franzen.

Booklet for The Kurt Weill Album