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Record companies, artists and publicists are invited to submit CDs to be considered for review. Send to: Jerry Bowles, Editor, Sequenza 21, 340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019

Wednesday, November 30, 2005
In praise of Paul Dessau

I was in Berlin at the weekend, and a concert in the beautiful Konzerthaus gave an interesting glimpse of the values of the communist music czars. The Konzerthaus, which dates from 1821, was gutted by fire in 1945. It was sumptuously restored during the last years of communist rule in East Berlin in the 1980's, and thirty-six composers identified as all time greats were honoured with busts in the main concert hall.

There are some interesting names among the chosen composers, none more so than Paul Dessau. This German composer fled when the Nazis came to power in 1933, and expressed his antifascist beliefs through his music. He collabarated with Bertolt Brecht who he followed to Hollywood (The photo to the right shows Dessau with Brecht behind him). During his time in Hollywood he composed for a number of movie studios, including somewhat unbelievably scores for Alice in Wonderland and other animated Disney films, surely the ultimate clash of ideologies? In 1946 he joined the US Communist Party, and in 1948 returned to Germany and settled in the GDR. His music is influenced by his Jewish background. His 1974 opera Einstein had a notable production at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in West Berlin in 1978 with a cast including Theo Adam and Peter Schreier. In January 2006 a festival featuring six of his film scores is taking place in Lugano, Switzerland.

For the full listing of the thirty-six honoured composers, which contains some other interesting names including Hanns Eisler, for more about Paul Dessau, and for the full story of the historic Konzerthaus take An Overgrown Path to Music history rewritten.

Picture credits - Dessau and Brecht - Michigan State University Department of Theatre
Report errors, missing images and broken links to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
posted by Pliable 11/30/2005



 
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