Search - Paul Dessau, Axel Bauni, Stella Doufexis :: Paul Dessau: Lieder

The unknown Dessau

10/25/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Not really what I had expected, but very good nevertheless. I was expecting Brecht and Tucholsky settings, though only five of the 36 tracks are settings of Brecht (five of the very short but charming "Tierverse") and there is no Tucholsky material. Instead, I got acquainted with some less known Dessau Lieder - the earliest one dating from 1914 - covering his entire career up to the mid-1970s. What I had heard of the young Paul Dessau before I bought this album (e.g. the "Haggadah Shel Pessach") hadn't really impressed me, and I had the impression his compositional skill developed rather late. These early songs proved me wrong. The earliest songs don't sound like the usual sharp-edged Dessau fare, though, it's more slightly atonal late romanticism (reminded me a bit of pre-dodecaphony Berg or Webern). The characteristical Dessau style is, however, recognisable already in some Villon settings from the 1930s (though it feels a bit odd to hear them accompanied by only a pianist. One keeps expecting sudden Dessauian outbursts of snare drum, cymbals and screeching trumpets.) There is no unity of style here: there are beautiful melodic Lenz settings and atonal Neruda settings, blues pastiche and twelvetone. All (or most) of it charming. This is perhaps not the album to start with, in order to get to know the composer (for that purpose I would recommend Sonja Kehler's or Gisela May's recordings, or the Lukullus opera. Don't know if Kehler is available on CD, though.), but it is well worth having if you appreciate Dessau's work. Performances and sound quality are very good throughout."