Antony Beaumont & Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen - Weill: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 & Quodlibet (2006) [Hi-Res]

Conductor Antony Beaumont argues convincingly in the liner notes of this album for a smaller orchestra with a very limited string section. He employs only 23 string-players throughout. The result is a much leaner but better-balanced sound than I’ve heard previously in performances of either symphony, where the string sections were more than twice as large… To my way of thinking, this is the best release yet of Weill’s symphonies, especially the problematic first, and a notable success for Beaumont.

Fanfare

This disc is marked by a sense of urgency and top-quality playing. Beaumont and the musicians of Bremen have Symphony No. 1 (1920) tossing and turning. Adverse criticism both kept it from view until a posthumous premiere in 1957and turned Weill towards populism and the Song Symphony (1924) is a bridge work between the contrasting symphonies that combines intellectual harmonic rigor, dancing rhythms and juvenile melodic appeal. The performers give a freshly inspiring account of this rarely heard but wonderfully entertaining work.

The Times

Kurt Weill is remembered more for his work on Broadway than as a composer of ambitious concert music who once studied with Schoenberg. This is a pity because both of these symphonies reveal a fertile imagination and a composer who found unexpected relevance within symphonic form… Beaumont keeps Weill’s structural disjoints marvellously jagged, while working the orchestra up to a frenzy.

Classic FM Magazine

Antony Beaumaont’s Bremen players on Chandos are similarly well groomed. This conductor makes more of the symphony’s dynamic markings, as in the introduction to the first movement; and, with the assistance of a more transparent recording, his more animated reading brings us closer to the heart of this haunting work.

Gramophone

The engineering is clean, with a light resonance in stereo, and possesses an extra degree of presence that really brings out the solo winds and brass in surround sound. To my way of thinking, this is the best release yet of Weill’s symphonies, especially the problematic First, and a notable success for Beaumont.

Fanfare