January 16, 2017

  • Weill Taken on a New Road

     

    Weill (adapted Ed Harsh): The Road to Promise
    MasterVoices, Orchestra of St. Luke’s/Ted Sperling
    Navona Records 6059
    Disc One: Total Time:  62:02
    Disc Two: Total Time:  53:42
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Kurt Weill’s massive oratorio-like The Road of Promise is a concert adaptation of the composer’s The Eternal Road. Highlights from the work appeared a while back on a Naxos release (8.559402). Begun in 1934 at the heart of the increasing gross antisemitism in Germany, the work would receive a performance three years later in New York.  The four-hour work was populated by a cast of hundreds as it slowly unpacked the history of the Jewish people.  It was there in Carnegie Hall that Ted Sperling amassed the MasterVoices and Orchestra of St. Lukes for this first performance of the work since 1999.  The present recording was culled from the performances on May 6 and 7, 2015, and features some outbursts of applause.  Harsh was inspired to craft this adaptation from a review at the time overcome by the theatrical opulence that overshadowed Weill’s often intense and poignant score.

    The work features a libretto by Franz Werfel.  He was commissioned to provide the text by the impresario and Zionist Meyer Weisgal.  He chose Weill, fresh off successes of The Threepenny Opera  and The Rise and Fall of Mahoganny.  The text follows through many familiar Old Testament stories beginning with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Ruth, King David, and Zedekiah.  The stories are framed by characters who are hiding in a synagogue remembering the history and trying to find hope in the current climate.  The Rabbi (sung here by Anthony Dean Griffey) serves as the primary story teller to begin each story the way Bach’s Evangelist does in his passions.

    The music draws from Hebraic melody and folk song, but also one can find a bit of opera, the musical theater, operetta (especially in the Ruth segment), and other musical borrowings spun into an engaging hybrid of music that seems to have one foot perfectly in the Late-Romantic opera world (with hints of Wagner).  It would certainly make entry into the stories easier.  This, along with the general progression of the different Biblical tales, casts its own allegorical shadow on the period and the fate of the Jewish people.  For the adaptation, Harsh did some major editing, removing often lengthy dialogue segments to help pare it down into a manageable couple of hours.

    The performances here are quite good with competent performances all around.  The chorus balance is well realized and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s is in fine form as well.  In short, the recording is a faithful rendering of these concerts.  The opportunity to at least have some aspect of the piece available, while certainly odd at times, is worth tracking down for Weill fans.  Somehow, it seems to resonate again in the current political climate.  In its day, it certainly struck a chord with some 139 performances on Broadway.