A most striking and unusual concert. part of the Live at Lunch series, ,Jane Rutter’s guests this time were the amazing Nexas Saxophone Quartet ( Michael Duke on soprano saxophone , Andrew Smith on alto saxophone , Nathan Henshaw on tenor Saxophone and Jay Byrnes on baritone Saxophone together with opera star Peter Coleman-Wright. The noteworthy rather unconventional arrangements were generally for the saxophone quartet and sometimes included Coleman-Wright on piano.
The concert specifically looked at cabaret works by composers from the Weimar Era to WWII, putting the works and the turbulence of the era in context and looking at how many of the Weimar composers, such as Weill, were driven into exile in the USA and the quartet played the role of various composers, introducing the audience members to their life stories and works – Henshaw evoked Franz Schreker, Byrnes became Hans Eisler, Smith portrayed Bertolt Brecht, while Duke was Robert Stolz. The quartet played with great energy and smooth precision full of virtuosity and fine ensemble work.
The Quartet and Coleman- Wright were dressed in period costume as the various composers. In character (Coleman-Wright as Weill) they quote from the various composers’ diaries and letters. Various images (eg glamorous showgirls, Marlene Dietrich inThe Blue Angel , the Brandenburg Gates, Nuremberg rallies and poignant photos of ordinary citizens of the time) are projected on the back screen adding intense sometimes chilling atmosphere .We learnt about the oppression and persecution of artists ( especially Jewish artists) during this period in Germany and how cabaret was full of dark, at times dangerous social comment. Some of the artists such as Weill were able to escape to America and we learn the tragic fates of others.
A substantial part of the concert consisted of works by Kurt Weill, mostly sung in the original German (unless written once he’d escaped to America – eg There’ll be love , life and laughter , written in collaboration with George Gershwin as was their breathless patter song Tchaikovsky). And, of course, much was made of his collaboration with Bertolt Brecht – so we heard the world weary Ballade van angenehmen leben ( Ballad of a Simple Life ) and Kannon Song from The Threepenny Opera .
Rutter sometimes joins the Quartet on her gold flute or piccolo, but a show stopping section of the concert is where she explodes onto the stage as Lotte Lenya in ‘stage tatters’ who launches into her Pirate Jenny aria, also from the Threepenny Opera .
There were also big production numbers from other composers and various shows eg the romantic Schon war’s heute abend (This evening was beautiful ) by Stoltz and Rotter and Gluckwunsch ( I wish you bliss) by Korngold and Dehmel .We heard the stirring Song of the Free (Weill /MacLeish) and The Workers Song ( Eisler /Gilbert) .
There was dangerously provocative humour, too, with the quartet ironically quoting Nazi guidelines on jazz calling for a restriction on the use of saxophones, while the posters from the era we see are quite disconcerting.
The encore was a jaunty upbeat version of Mac The Knife from The Threepenny Opera.
A fascinating concert .
http://theconcourse.com.au/composers-in-exile/
Live at Lunch Composers In Exile was at the Concourse Chatswood for one performance only 17 October 2018
Running time 1 hr 15 mins no interval