Kurt Weill (1900-1950), best known for his score for Brecht’s Threepenny Opera (with its hit song Mack the Knife) and his later musicals on Broadway, was a classically trained composer who studied with Busoni and Schoenberg. His First Symphony, written as a student, was harshly expressionist. By the time he got around to his Violin Concerto (1925), a few hints of jazz rhythm had crept in, and a wind-dominated accompaniment that brings to mind Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale. The concerto was inspired by the playing of the great Josef Szigeti, although he did not premiere it, which explains the high tessitura of the violin part: Szigeti’s tone was sweet at the top.

Kurt Weill

The Second Symphony was begun in Berlin, but as a Jew Weill knew his days there were numbered. He completed the work in Paris in 1934, before moving on to America where Bruno Walter performed the new symphony with the New York Philharmonic. This is the Weill we know: the mordant, minor key melodies, chugging accompanying rhythms, and distinctive melodic contours. Structurally it is...