On Thursday evening soprano Reilly Nelson and composer/keyboardist Friedrich Kern presented an intriguing programme based around songs by Kurt Weill.  Songs were interleaved with composed passages for electronics based on glass harmonica and texts in English and German.  It was a “celebration” of impermanence and of the never quite dying hope that there is something more substantial out there somewhere.

The songs were a mix of the familiar; Youkali, Surabaya Johnny, and the less familiar; Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib? and Ballade vom ertrunkenen Mädchen, for example.  All of it was sung in the original language (French or German) with keyboard accompaniment and Reilly made no attempt to make it lovely.  This was Weill at his cabaret rawest which is just the way I like it; gritty not pretty  Crooned, bowdlerized English translations be damned! Continue reading →