Jan Friedl sings Brecht

It is Brecht the poet we hear through the songs. Brecht wrote poetry all his life, long before he wrote plays and until his death. He remains, arguably, the foremost German poet of the century. His interests were wide, his observations acute, and his grip on the language strong but subtle. Brecht chose his musical collaborators with the same care and cunning as his theatrical ones. His own interest in music was sustained and knowledgeable, and he exerted considerable influence on the composers who worked with him. His collaborators, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Dessau, produced much of their best work with Brecht.

The songs encompass many of the musical idioms and techniques of the early 20th century, from 12-tone composition by the Schoenberg pupil and Marxist Hanns Eisler, through rhythmically complex and Eastern European-influenced pieces. They capture the essential precariousness of the dizzy, overheated European society and the nightmare of the real Mahagonny that was to come. Sweet and bitter conversations tell of our times, and of us.