Planet Hugill: A satisfying recital in so some ways: Katie Bray & William Vann discover the entire of Kurt Weill

In the hunt for Youkali: The songs of Kurt Weill; Katie Bray, William Vann, Murray Grainger, Marianne Schofield; CHANDOS
Reviewed 20 January 2026

A profoundly satisfying and intelligently put collectively recital tracing Weill from Weimar Germany to pre-Conflict Paris to American and Broadway. The songs all fantastically carried out, capturing the essence of fashion and by no means dropping sight of the phrases or Weill’s music 

After Kurt Weill’s loss of life in 1950, his widow Lotte Lenya devoted time to resurrecting Weill’s music, notably the works written in Germany together with scores which had been misplaced. She was persuaded to sing the songs, together with taking the function of Jenny in Mark Blitzstein’s English model of The Threepenny Opera. However her voice had deepened significantly and limitations meant that she used much more sprechstimme than Weill himself might need imagined. This led to a cabaret-style of efficiency in Weill’s music, notably the works with Brecht, which turned virtually customary. Weill himself noticed no distinction between his German and his American works, viewing the entire as a continuum.

The problem of performing Weill these days is exemplified by Nanna’s Lied (phrases by Brecht), written for Lotte Lenya, however she by no means sang it in public although there are information of personal performances. It’s a tune, it must be sung, but additionally wants that spotlight to the phrases that every one of Weill’s Brecht settings do.

I first heard mezzo-soprano Katie Bray singing Kurt Weill with pianist William Vann in 2019 at Pizza Categorical in Chelsea [see my review], and we caught the pair in an analogous programme on the Oxford Lieder Competition in 2021 [see my review]. Now this programme, suitably matured has been caught on disc with In the hunt for Youkali: the songs of Kurt Weill on Chandos the place Bray and Vann are joined by Murray Grainger (accordion) and Marianne Schofield (double bass). 

The programme makes use of Youkali, a tango-habanera that started life as an instrumental for the play Marie Galante in 1934 (with Weill then in Paris) earlier than being become a tune, the music reappearing within the 1935 operetta Der Kuhandel in addition to the early American musical Johnny Johnston (1936). The tune is a couple of land of misplaced content material, and Bray and Vann use this as a form of emblem, the programme being linked by 4 quick improvisations on Youkali earlier than we hear the tune on the finish. In a manner it’s emblematic of Weill’s personal journey in the direction of a musical excellent.

The programme takes a roughly chronological view of Weill’s profession shifting from The Threepenny Opera and Completely satisfied Finish, to the French interval together with Marie Galante, and a sequence of American songs that transfer from Lunchtime Follies and Knickerbocker Vacation to One Contact of Venus, Woman within the Darkish and Huckleberry Finn, ending with Youkali. For these accustomed to Teresa Stratas’ disc, The Unknown Kurt Weill, there are few novelties although the 2 songs from Huckleberry Finn, a late, intriguing, unfinished undertaking, are usually not well-known. 

The benefit of Bray’s strategy is that she actually sings the songs, exhibiting no distinction between the totally different Kurt Weills, but phrases are at all times necessary. In Barbara Track, phrases are spat out, sung on the sting of the voice however nonetheless sung. Right here, and all through the disc, Bray and Vann actually seize that bitter-sweet aspect to Weill’s music that was current whether or not he was writing in Weimar Germany or pre-Conflict Paris or recapturing the American dream. Berlin im Licht (setting Brecht however celebrating town’s electrification) is made extra song-like than some variations, then we get the overture to Die Dreigroschenoper in an instrumental model for piano, accordion and bass that basically brings out the work’s aspect of the opposite German Weill, the one who studied with Busoni and wrote spiky music. The ultimate German work is Surabaya Johnny from Completely satisfied Finish in Michael Feingold’s English model. Each singer makes one thing totally different of this tune (my prime model stays listening to Cathy Berberian singing it stay), and Bray brings a lyrical tenderness to it with much less chunk to the spoken ‘take that cigarette out of your mouth, you rat’. But she matches all of the phrases in and spits them out splendidly. Right here there isn’t a piano, simply the melancholy magic of accordion and bass. 

We then transfer to the lyrical beauties of Weill’s Parisian interval. Complainte de la Scene, Je ne t’aime pas and J’attends un navire. Weill’s music from this era is stuffed with self-borrowings, as detailed by James Holmes’ glorious article within the booklet, but the songs all have a specific flavour, a chief instance of the way in which Weill may reinvent but stay fixed. It’s in these songs that Bray and Vann’s strategy repays consideration. Bray brings out the melancholy lyrical line imaginable being sung by Mistinguett but nonetheless correctly sung and with phrases to the fore.

In America, Buddy on the Nightshift was written in 1942, a uncommon collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II, but right here we will nonetheless hear components of Weill’s German songs overlaid together with his immersion in American type. Subsequent comes Nanna’s Lied, written for Lenya but by no means publicly carried out, although Brecht recalled a personal efficiency that was ‘unforgettable’. It’s a actual tune, leaving cabaret and musical behind, and Bray makes it gut-wrenching.

September Track from Knickerbocker Vacation is an instance of the Nice American Musical in motion. The musical was deliberate by creator Maxwell Anderson as a satire on the New Deal, however bringing Walter Huston in as Peter Stuyvesant, with Weill’s September Track particularly written for him, moved the musical into extra romantic territory. Right here we hear it in a wonderful instrumental model from William Vann.

Apple Jack from Huckleberry Finn, carried out by Bray and Grainger, is an entire delight with Bray bringing the phrases out as if this was Brecht tune. Communicate Low from One Contact of Venus requires a distinct strategy. Right here Bray and Vann do certainly seduce us with Bray spinning out Weill’s line in simply the appropriate manner. One other tune that requires singing is My Ship from Woman within the Darkish, written for Gertrude Lawrence. We return to Huckleberry Finn for This Time Subsequent 12 months, a haunting ballad that makes you remorse that Weill by no means received the prospect to complete his work on the musical.

All 4 performers come collectively for Youkali, lastly heard full with Bray in seductive type.

That is a kind of discs the place the training is worn calmly. Bray and Vann inhabit the songs so properly that we do not particularly discover that adjustments in type and strategy. As a substitute, every tune is made to work by itself phrases however at all times with the fixed presence of Weill. That is a kind of discs that makes for a satisfying recital in so some ways, one the place Bray’s character is to the fore but the disc isn’t about that. And all through, I saved questioning about full performances of the work along with her!

Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
A Glimpse of Youkali – An Improvisation
Barbarasong (from The Threepenny Opera)
Berlin im Licht
Overture to The Threepenny Opera
Surabaya Johnny (from Completely satisfied Finish)
A Imaginative and prescient of Youkali – An Improvisation
Complainte de la Seine (‘Beauties of the Evening’
from The Torn Gown)
Je ne t’aime pas (from Marie Galante)
J’attends un navire (from Marie Galante)
A Dream of Youkali – An Improvisation
Buddy on the Nightshift (from Lunchtime Follies)
Nanna’s Lied
September Track (from Knickerbocker Vacation)
Apple Jack (from Huckleberry Finn)
A Premonition of Youkali – An Improvisation
Communicate Low (from One Contact of Venus)
My Ship (from Woman within the Darkish)
This Time Subsequent 12 months (from Huckleberry Finn)
Youkali

Katie Bray (mezzo-soprano)
William Vann (piano)
Murray Grainger (accordion)
Marianne Schofield (double bass)
Recorded St George’s, Gravestone, Harrow; 3 – 5 February 2025
CHANDOS RECORDS CHAN 20359 1CD [60:37]