Friedrich HOLLAENDER
(1896-1976)
CD 1
1. Wenn der alte Motor wieder tackt (4:31)
2. Dornröschen aus´m Wedding (2:48)
3. Heimat Berlin (Mit der Hand übern
Alexanderplatz) (2:17)
4. Oh Mond (3:26)
5. Im Park (0:49)
6. Lene Levi (1:34) Käte Kühl
Werner Richard
HEYMANN (1896-1961)
7. Das Leibregiment (3:38) Trude Hesterberg
Friedrich HOLLAENDER
(1896-1976)
8. Kaukasische Obstverkäufer (3:19)
Der blaue Vogel
9. Bei uns um die Gedächniskirche rum
(8:42) Anni Mewes
10. Die Trommlerin als Schießbudenfigur
(2:39) Blandine Ebinger
Siegwart EHRLICH
11. Ich bin die Marie von der
Haller-Revue (2:33) Lea Seidl
Mischa SPOLIANSKY
(1899-1985)
12. Es liegt in der Luft (7:37) Marlene
Dietrich
13. Wenn die beste Freundin (3:08) Marlene
Dietrich
14. Ich weiß, daß ist nicht
so (3:16) Willy Prager
15. Kabarett-Revue (6:16) Paul Nikolaus
Friedrich HOLLAENDER
(1896-1976)
16. Die Herren Männer (3:01) Trude
Hesterberg
17. Raus mit den Männern aus dem Reichstag
(3.13) Claire Waldoff
Hermann LEOPOLDI
18. Ich red mir ein, es geht mir gut (2:50)
Max Hansen
Willy ROSEN
19. Nur nicht unterkriegen lassen
(1:42) Wilhelm Bendow,
Max HANSEN
20. War´n Sie schon mal in mich verliebt?
(3:39) Max Hansen
Friedrich HOLLAENDER
(1896-1976)
21. Baby (3:08) Comedian Harmonists, Walter
Mehring
Kurt WEILL
(1900-1950)
22. Seeräuber-Jenny (3:14) Lotte
Lenya
CD2
Friedrich HOLLAENDER
(1896-1976)
Jonny (2:59) Marlene Dietrich
Willy ENGEL-BERGER
2. Seemannschoral (3:32) Hans Albers
Rote RAKETEN
3. Das Gaslied (2:27) Rote Raketen
Hanns EISLER
(1892-1962)
4. Gustav Kulkes seliges Ende (3:06) Erich
Weinert
5. Wandervogel-Parodie (3:26) Hans Deppe,
Werner Finck
Rudolf NELSON
(1878-1960)
6. Das spricht Bände (8:26) Mary
Losseff
Friedrich HOLLAENDER
(1896-1976)
7. Guck doch nicht immer nach dem Tangogeiger
hin (2:52) Curt Bois
Rudolf NELSON
(1878-1960)
8. Der rote Faden (7:35) Camilla Spira
Friedrich HOLLAENDER
(1896-1976)
9.In St. Pauli bei Altona (2:57) Grete Mosheim
Mischa SPOLIANSKY
(1899-1985)
10. Wie werde ich reich und glücklich
(7:52) Blandine Ebinger
Friedrich HOLLAENDER
(1896-1976)
11. Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß (3:02)
Marlene Dietrich
12. Nimm dich in Acht vor blonden Frau´n
(2:45) Weitraubs Syncopators
Hanns EISLER
(1892-1962)
13. Lied der Arbeitslosen (Stempellied)
(3:08) Ernst Busch
14. Song von den brennenden Zeitfragen (2:12)
Die Nachrichter
Friedrich HOLLAENDER
(1896-1976)
15. Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte
(1:53) Marlene Dietrich
Edmund NICK
16. Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär (2:11)
Die drei Katakombe-Jungens
Friedrich HOLLAENDER
(1896-1976)
17. Ich weiß nicht, zu wem ich gehöre
(3:27) Anna Sten
18. Solang wir jung sind, Madame (2:42)
Curt Bois
Rudolf NELSON
(1878-1960)
19. Die Dame von der alten Schule (3:39)
Hilde Hildebrand
Willi KOLLO
20. Der Bücherkarren (2:06) Willi Schaeffers
Otto STRANSKY
21. Ich steh auf dem Boden der
Tatsachen (2:25) Rudolf Platte
Hanns EISLER
(1892-1962)
22. Der Marsch ins Dritte Reich (2:45) Erst
Busch
Marlene Dietrich, Claire Waldorff, Blandine
Ebinger; Camilla Spira, Lotte Lenja, Trude
Hesterberg, Margo Lion, Hans Albers, Curt
Bois, Joachim Ringelnatz, Heinz Rühmann,
Oskar Karlweis, Ernst Busch, die Comedian
Harmonists.
This double set from
the Akademie der Künste was released
in 1996 and I’ve recently
reviewed a single from the same
company issued in 2002, which covers
the same kind of ground. There is some
duplication – eight of the better-known
tracks are common to both. The later
single CD had bi-lingual notes (German
and English) and years of publication
of the discs. This one is in German
only and has no recording dates – but
has a fine selection of archive photographs
and texts of all the songs. Swings and
roundabouts.
I won’t repeat my brief
introduction to that single disc so
can concentrate here on the performances.
Paul Graetz shows his animal vigour
in Hollaender and Clare Waldoff once
more takes honours with her rough-voiced
toughness and parlando menace in the
same composer’s Dornröschen
aus´m Wedding. I’m assuming the
snippet of Im Park written and
narrated by Joachim Ringelnatz comes
from a film but one thing’s for sure
and that’s that Kate Kühl’s pert
Lene Levi will win friends. Trude
Hesterberg unveils more than hints of
The Red Flag in Heymann’s Das
Leibregiment because her scary mezzo
brings a ‘no prisoners’ memorability
to it and there’s a pleasingly crisp
cabaret ensemble to the revue item Bei
uns um die Gedächniskirche rum.
Another of the great stars, Blandine
Ebinger is here of course; with older
voice and vivid, parlando style. She
only has three notes but what notes
they are. And it was cheeky of the compilers
to follow her with the soubrette verve
of Lea Seidl, who is accompanied by
the debilitating plunk of the Berlin
banjo. In the main, contrasting the
accompaniments in this double and the
companion CD from this company, this
one relies rather more on straight piano
or simpler band arrangements. They are
less jazzy and somewhat less idiosyncratic
but more homogeneous and consonant with
a particular kind of cabaret song. Dietrich
stars in the title track of the other
CD, Es liegt in der Luft, which
features an ensemble cross-talk act.
Willy Prager’s is a real "Weill"
voice and it’s always good to hear the
double-sided Cabaret Revue "recreations"
– little potpourri, they usually last
eight minutes and give a simulacrum
of a longer act. And I loved one of
the great Voices of Weimar, Max Hansen,
in Ich red mir ein, es geht mir gut.
Fans of the Comedian Harmonists
will note their heroes are here as well,
of course.
On the second CD Hans
Albers displays his ironic conversational
style in Seemannschoral. Erich
Weinert gives us a real character study
in hoarse dynamism in Eisler’s Gustav
Kulkes seliges Ende. When was his
Wandervogel-Parodie recorded
and for what medium – it sounds in very
good non-commercial condition … film?
Curt Bois, Weill singer and expertly
debonair, cuts a fine cloth in his Tango
song whilst the light-voiced Grete Mosheim
is a little strained but effectively
enthusiastic in Hollaender’s In St.
Pauli bei Altona. Dietrich makes
three appearances on the second disc
with Jonny leading off and you-know-what
from Der blaue Engel. We also
get another song immortalised in one
of her films, Wenn ich mir was wünschen
dürfte. Ernst Busch impresses
with his lugubrious personality in
Eisler, Anna Sten is wavery but intensely
evocative in Hollaender and Hilde Hildebrand
is precise in her sprachgesang in Rudolf
Nelson’s Die Dame von der alten Schule
(is it the pianist-composer accompanying
her?). Willi Schaeffers sounds very
forwardly and modernly recorded in his
ditty about "Adolf" and Rudolf
Platte seems every inch the urbane actor-singer
in his explicitly politicised Ich
steh auf dem Boden der Tatsachen and
we end with Ernst Busch "doing"
a ranting Hitler ("Der Führer
sagt; Jetzt kommt der letzte
Winter!" to the sound of derisive
trumpets).
These discs are of
some considerable documentary interest
– for their socio-political resonance
and their sense of time and of place.
They embody the spirit of musical Weimar
but even more than that the prevailing
cultural approaches to the medium. There’s
also the not unimportant fact that some
of these songs entered the fabric of
twentieth century life. A few of the
copies sound slightly rough but in the
main this is an excellent conspectus
of the world of the Berlin cabaret before
it and so much else was swept away.
Jonathan Woolf
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