Sonja Kehler - Dessau Lieder (Nova)

This is an album with songs by Paul Dessau and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, in the interpretation of Sonja Kehler. The album was recorded in 1976 and released in 1977 on the NOVA label in the GDR.

Paul Dessau, (born Dec. 19, 1894, Hamburg, Ger.—died June 28, 1979, East Berlin, GDR) was a German composer and conductor best known for his operas and other vocal works written in collaboration with Bertolt Brecht. Dessau’s conducting career included posts in Cologne (1919–23) and Berlin (1925–33). His long collaboration with Brecht began in 1942 in the United States, where he wrote the music (1946) for Brecht’s play Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (Mother Courage and Her Children), the most popular of the Brecht-Dessau works. From 1948, they continued their partnership in East Germany, where Dessau composed his most successful opera, Die Verurteilung des Lukullus (1949; “The Sentencing of Lucullus”; also called Das Verhör des Lukullus [“The Trial of Lucullus”]), with libretto by Brecht. Dessau’s other works include the opera Einstein (1971–73).
His opera "Die Verurteilung des Lukullus" drew sharp criticism from the Party. Still, Dessau was highly respected: in 1952, he was voted membership into the Academy of Arts in East Berlin, then was appointed its vice president in 1957, serving until 1962. From 1962 to 1975, he taught at a primary school in the Berlin suburb of Zeuthen, where he lived since 1954. He remained active in composition in his last years and never acquiesced to Party officials, who often condemned his works.        

Sonja Kehler was born on February 2, 1933 in Haldersleben near Magdeburg. After graduating from the College of Drama in Leipzig she was given engagements at several theatres in the GDR, before launching on an international career as a freelance singer and actress. Sonja Kehler made a name for herself above all as a performer of works by Bertolt Brecht, whether as Shen Te in “The Good Person of Sezuan”, as Jenny in “The Threepenny Opera” or as Grusche in “The Caucasian Chalk Circle”.

Nevertheless in the 80s she was barely alowed to perform in the GDR. The repression started when one of her musicians didn´t come back to GDR after a concert “in the West”. Sonja Kehler told about that time in an interview: “I couldn´t get work in the GDR, no concerts, no recordings, but I was allowed to tour abroad again because it brought in foreign currency. I had of course done a lot in the GDR before that: concerts, theatre, shows, television work. But at a particular point that all stopped and I was only allowed to perform abroad. At that time Bernd Wefelmeyer was already my accompanist. In 1978 I made a very accomplished Brecht recording with hi but it was never released in the GDR, although WERGO did market it in the West”.
 

Tracklist:

Das Zukunftslied
Zwei Lieder aus Der Kaukasische Kreidekreis"
Bei den Hochgestellten
Zwei Kinderlieder
Drei Lieder aus "Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder"
Historie vom verliebten Schwein Malchus
Tierverse
Kampflied der schwarzen Strohhüte
Drei Lieder aus"Der gute Mensch von Sezuan"
Bitte der Kinder aus Herrnburger Bericht"

Sonja Kehler - Dessau Lieder (Nova)
(ca. 224 kbps, cover art included)