Word: weill
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Mack the Knife (Louis Armstrong combo; Columbia). An uptempo, updated version of Kurt Weill's wonderful old ragtime hit from The Threepenny Opera (1928). Satchmo plays a lilting chorus and growls some free variations on the fine Marc Blitzstein lyrics (1954). Then he hears a shouted "Take it, Satch," and the Armstrong trumpet takes it high...
...pronounced the summer prematurely over and raised the curtain on a season of high promise with a 90-minute version of the 1943 Broadway musical, One Touch of Venus. Janet Blair had the tiptoe grace required of a goddess awakened after slumbering for thousands of years in marble; Kurt Weill's pleasant music occasionally gave the show levitation; Russell Nype and George Gaynes struggled bravely against the shackling grasp of the heavyhanded plot. But Venus underlined the fact that once a Broadway musical is robbed of its racy dialogue and incident, there is little left...
...Weill: Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra, Op. 12 (Anahid Ajemian; M-G-M Wind Orchestra conducted by Izler Solomon; M-G-M). A selection from Kurt Weill's nearly forgotten early period in Germany. The first movement is modern, the second a sleazy serenade with a crude rhythm jiggling under a high-toned fiddle, the third a romping gallop. Despite the strange orchestration that leaves the mid-range empty, the music is rich harmonically, and contains snatches of Weill's low-down lyricism that was to blossom into Three-Penny Opera, Street Scene, September Song, etc. Performance...
...rule-busting violence in the ring, they still saw the match as a triumph of phony showmanship and unscrupulous exploitation. Said the New York Daily Mirror's Dan Parker: "As shameless as a jackal gorging on the remnants of a lion's breakfast kill, Al Weill, that distinguished promoter of international good will, is already talking of a return bout between Rocky Marciano and his Monday-night abattoir victim, Don Cockell. There having been no reason for the first match, except a grossly commercial one, there is even less cause for a second slaughter. And when Weill says...
...singers were equally right and equally impressive. "Brilliant," again, is the only word for Elisabeth Hubbard as Mrs. Peachum. Not only is her voice magnificent, but her acting is equal to the rigorous demands of Weill's music. Her cruelty and cynicism give added dimension to numbers like "The Ballad of Survival" and "The Ballad of Dependency." Bronia Sielewicz, as the prostitute Jenny, will make even the most sentimental viewer forgive her for replacing the familiar German accent of Lotte Lenya. "The Pirate Jenny" and "The Solomon Song" are two of the best examples of Weill and Brecht...