Eva-Maria Hagen - »Joe, mach die Musik von damals nach ...« - Eva-Maria Hagen singt Brecht

Eva-Maria Hagen died yesterday - rest in peace!

Born on October 19, 1934, Eva-Maria Hagen started her stage career in 1953, still under Bertolt Brecht who was then boss of the world-famous Berliner Ensemble theater. When she started a relationship with the ostracized songwriter and poet Wolf Biermann in 1965, the GDR authorities started harassing her, leading to subsequent bans on her work as a performer and actress.

In 1977, after protesting against Biermann's expulsion from the GDR the year before, Hagen was forced to relocate to West Germany herself and settled in Hamburg with her daughter Nina Hagen . From there she started a successful career interpreting songs by Wolf Biermann and Bertolt Brecht. Her debut album, "Nicht Liebe ohne die Liebe" (1979), was a collection of Russian and Gypsy folk songs translated into German by Wolf Biermann. Biermann started to write songs for her which she released on the album "Ich leb' mein Leben" in 1981. On "Das mit den Männern und den Frau'n" (1985) and "Michael, Michael" (1986) she continued the collaboration with Biermann.

After the fall of the wall in 1989, she was finally allowed to perform again in East Germany. Besides many theater and film projects, as well as exhibitions of her paintings, she continued to release CDs: "Wenn ich erstmal losleg" (1996) with new Biermann songs using Baltic folk material, and on the occasion of Brecht's 100th birthday she released "Joe, mach die Musik von damals nach" (1997). Her book "Eva und der Wolf" (1998) about her time together with Biermann was a big success in Germany. In 1999 she released another album with Biermann songs: "Eva Singt Wolfslieder".

Eva-Maria Hagen about her album with songs of Bertolt Brecht:

"This was a present I gave myself to mark the centenary of Brecht the Master, in that I simply delved into his inexhaustible repertoire of songs (with music by Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau) and trilled away free as a bird as far as my beak allowed…
These songs and ballads have been with me almost all my life.
As a special extra, I give a rendering of some Biermann settings of Brecht poems, and sing the Alabama Song with my daughter Nina."

Tracklist:

1 Der Bilbao-Song (Weill) 4:38
2 Der Matrosen-Song (Weill) 3:55
3 Die Seeräuber-Jenny (Weill) 3:29
4 Das Lied vom Surabaya-Johnny (Weill) 3:58
5 Pollys Lied (Weill) 0:58
6 Die Ballade von der sexuellen Hörigkeit (Weill) 2:43
7 Der Song von Mandelay (Weill) 2:45
8 Lied eines Freudenmädchens (Eisler) 2:15
9 Lied vom kleinen Wind (Eisler) 1:57
10 Ballade vom Weib und dem Soldaten 3:13
11 Wiegenlied einer proletarischen Mutter (Eisler) 6:02
12 Ballade von der 'Judenhure' Marie Sanders (Eisler) 1:55
13 Lied vom Weib des Nazisoldaten (Eisler) 2:27
14 Deutsches Miserere (Erbarme dich!) (Eisler) 2:02
15 Lied von der belebenden Wirkung des Geldes (Eisler) 3:55
16 Lied vom Förster und der Gräfin (Dessau) 1:32
17 Ostern (Eisler) 1:43
18 Die haltbare Graugans (Eisler) 1:10
19 Herr Brecht (Text und Musik: Biermann) 0:54
20 Wenn das Haus eines Großen (Biermann) 0:54
21 Was an dir Berg war (Biermann) 0:40
22 Gegen die Objektiven (Biermann) 3:05
23 Beim Lesen des Horaz (Biermann) 1:06
24 Ziffels Lied (Biermann) 2:03
25 Denn wie man sich bettet (Weill) 2:50
26 Alabama-Song (Weill)
[Special Guest: Nina Hagen] 3:33
27 Die Moritat vom Mackie Messer (Weill) 2:53

Eva-Maria Hagen - »Joe, mach die Musik von damals nach ...« - Eva-Maria Hagen singt Brecht

(192 kbps, small cover included)