This two-fer includes the celebrated LOTTE LENYA SINGS BERLIN THEATRE SONGS OF KURT WELL as well as the definitive recording of the Brecht-Weill monodrama THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS ("Die Sieben Todsunden"). The perfectly arranged BERLIN THEATRE SONGS (1955) was released on the Columbia Masterworks label but it sounds more like one of those Original Cast LPs Columbia pioneered in the early '50s. Wherever it belongs, one couldn't ask for a better introduction to the enduring songs of Kurt Weill (and Bertolt Brecht). Lotte Lenya remains Brecht-Weill's best interpreter because she never sounded as though she was slumming or acting when declaiming Brecht's pungent tough-minded words. And her guttural yet curiously optimistic (and feminine) style always evokes the vivid world of the theater. The arrangements are Weill's very own for the THREEPENNY OPERA's "jazz" band and the production is as successfully staged as a classic rock album.

Recording Type: ADD