Symphony No.2 (Weill, Kurt) This work has been identified as being in the public domain in Canada, as well as countries where the copyright term is life+50 or life+70 years (including all EU countries).

The first page of Weill's manuscript score of Symphony no. "1" bears a dedication to the princesse de Polignac. This work is now known as Fantaisie symphonique, or Symphony no. 2. Program from the New York premiere, 1934

Kurt Weill composed Symphony No. 2 in1933-34 on a commission from the Princesse de Polignac (Winnaretta Singer, an heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune and an arts patron). The Concertgebouw premiered it in Amsterdam in October 1934 under the baton of Bruno Walter.

Weill ranks as one of the great theater innovators and composers, but his instrumental works – the violin concerto, the b-minor string quartet, the Quodlibet, the cello sonata, the two symphonies – also deserve respect.

Weill (1900-50) - Symphony No. 2 Mention Kurt Weill, and most folk think, not “symphonies”, but of Die Dreigroschenoper and “Mackie-Messer”, of the fabled Mahagonny , of that peculiarly German jazzy style combining heady nostalgia, biting satire, and downright sleaze.

Kurt Weill’s two symphonies may not have contributed anything vital to the development of the form in the twentieth century but they make fascinating listening in respect of both Weill’s own career and of contemporary musical currents.

It’s a very good thing that Naxos has gotten around to recording Kurt Weill’s two symphonies, and quite well too.

At 24, Weill’s iconic Berlin-cabaret sound is already identifiable: the dance-like flute solo in the ‘Serenata’; and the rollicking finale. Soloist Tamás Kocsis, leader of the Ulster Orchestra, is superb throughout this pristine recording.

SOMM RECORDINGS celebrates the mastery of a 20th-century original with superb new recordings of Kurt Weill’s Violin Concerto and Second Symphony by Tamás Kocsis and the Ulster Orchestra/Jac van Steen.