Tunes for Tyrants with Suzy Klein...

[Braunschlag]

How Great Thou Art?

That’s the one, a rather ironic title.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

That’s the one, a rather ironic title.

Hmm. Harry Secombe used to sing it regularly, and got very upset whenever Spike Milligan put the words to the tune of the Horst Wessel Song.

[Serial_Apologist]

Hmm. Harry Secombe used to sing it regularly, and got very upset whenever Spike Milligan put the words to the tune of the Horst Wessel Song.

Didn't know that!

[Richard Tarleton]

An enjoyable and informative programme. If I have one criticism of the presentational style, it's just that Suzy tries a bit too hard, and on a couple of occasions, protests too much. If you're going to smash a piano, just do it. The shock will be greater. If you tell us the piano is on its way out anyway, and do it apologetically, it's not worth doing. If you're going to do something surreal, ask yourself "what would Jonathan Meades [or Waldemar Januszczak, perhaps] do at this point?". Singing with the cabaret artists - hardly convincing, verging on embarrassing as she was so obviously way out of character. Telling us she agonized over whether to sing the Horst Wessel song - nobody's expecting you to, Suzy, just tell us about it.

And I wondered, twice - what is she drinking?

[Barbirollians]

An enjoyable and informative programme. If I have one criticism of the presentational style, it's just that Suzy tries a bit too hard, and on a couple of occasions, protests too much. If you're going to smash a piano, just do it. The shock will be greater. If you tell us the piano is on its way out anyway, and do it apologetically, it's not worth doing. If you're going to do something surreal, ask yourself "what would Jonathan Meades [or Waldemar Januszczak, perhaps] do at this point?". Singing with the cabaret artists - hardly convincing, verging on embarrassing as she was so obviously way out of character. Telling us she agonized over whether to sing the Horst Wessel song - nobody's expecting you to, Suzy, just tell us about it.

And I wondered, twice - what is she drinking?

I don't like these programmes where the presenters join in - that programme she did about music hall with Frank Skinner was probably the most cringeworthy thing I had seen for a long time . I can just about cope with Lucy Worsley dressing up but Sam Willis singing and playing 18th century sea songs had me switching off too .

[gurnemanz]

I don't like these programmes where the presenters join in - that programme she did about music hall with Frank Skinner was probably the most cringeworthy thing I had seen for a long time . I can just about cope with Lucy Worsley dressing up but Sam Willis singing and playing 18th century sea songs had me switching off too .

I thought I might be being mean-spirited in thinking the same as you. Those noddies and smilies from the presenter can become irksome.

[pastoralguy]

I sometimes wonder if the purpose of these programmes is to act as a stimulate to making ones own study of the subject. Next time we're in Berlin I'll make sure we visit the places Suzy Klein described in her programme.

[Stanfordian]

I sometimes wonder if the purpose of these programmes is to act as a stimulate to making ones own study of the subject. Next time we're in Berlin I'll make sure we visit the places Suzy Klein described in her programme.

I have visited Berlin on 10 or 11 occasions and there were several places on the programme that I have yet to search out!

[teamsaint]

I sometimes wonder if the purpose of these programmes is to act as a stimulate to making ones own study of the subject. Next time we're in Berlin I'll make sure we visit the places Suzy Klein described in her programme.

You could try this, if you haven't already. You need 18 Euros, bags of energy, and finely honed organisational skills !!

https://www.berlin.de/en/events/2091757-2842498-long-night-of-museums.en.html

[gradus]

Thanks for posting this which is new to me and worth copying in London and other cities.

[Bryn]

But the 'Horst Wessel' song was staggeringly significant in those horrific times in Germany. I felt it needed to be included!

S_A is quite right. I was suggesting that Eisler would have made a better example of counter to Wessel than Weill did. The Brecht/Eisler Solidaritätslied, for instance.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

If I have one criticism of the presentational style, it's just that Suzy tries a bit too hard, and on a couple of occasions, protests too much. If you're going to smash a piano, just do it. The shock will be greater. If you tell us the piano is on its way out anyway, and do it apologetically, it's not worth doing. If you're going to do something surreal, ask yourself "what would Jonathan Meades [or Waldemar Januszczak, perhaps] do at this point?". Singing with the cabaret artists - hardly convincing, verging on embarrassing as she was so obviously way out of character. Telling us she agonized over whether to sing the Horst Wessel song - nobody's expecting you to, Suzy, just tell us about it.

- the presenter-focussed Worsleyisms were at the heart of my own disquiet with the first programme: the "let's dress up and have fun" covering quite a narrow, superficial and not altogether accurate discussion of the History. (Though thankfully no "Bambi moments" in this programme.)

I was less enamoured of the performance of the Moritat von Mackie Messer than were Stanf, Bauxi, and Pasto - if the programme focussed on the history, then this somewhat "individual" performance was no closer to the Brecht/Weill original than was Louis Armstrong's. The clip of Brecht's own singing showed how neither composer nor librettist expected the melody and rhythm of the song to be so distorted. If we want to hear how it sounded in pre-Nazi Germany we can do - extracts from the original production were made in 1930, two years after it started, and with most of the original cast. Mackie Messer starts 46 secs in, and is very different from the bourgeois archness of the chap in the programme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF_jtz0kP9s

[Serial_Apologist]

- the presenter-focussed Worsleyisms were at the heart of my own disquiet with the first programme: the "let's dress up and have fun" covering quite a narrow, superficial and not altogether accurate discussion of the History. (Though thankfully no "Bambi moments" in this programme.)

But with Suzy there seems to be some lack of self-awareness (or perhaps a contrived excess of it), whereas with Lucy I sense a knowingness behind her coquettishness, a subtle self-parodying.

I was less enamoured of the performance of the Moritat von Mackie Messer than were Stanf, Bauxi, and Pasto - if the programme focussed on the history, then this somewhat "individual" performance was no closer to the Brecht/Weill original than was Louis Armstrong's. The clip of Brecht's own singing showed how neither composer nor librettist expected the melody and rhythm of the song to be so distorted. If we want to hear how it sounded in pre-Nazi Germany we can do - extracts from the original production were made in 1930, two years after it started, and with most of the original cast. Mackie Messer starts 46 secs in, and is very different from the bourgeois archness of the chap in the programme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF_jtz0kP9s

Me too!

[Bryn]

- the presenter-focussed Worsleyisms were at the heart of my own disquiet with the first programme: the "let's dress up and have fun" covering quite a narrow, superficial and not altogether accurate discussion of the History. (Though thankfully no "Bambi moments" in this programme.)

I was less enamoured of the performance of the Moritat von Mackie Messer than were Stanf, Bauxi, and Pasto - if the programme focussed on the history, then this somewhat "individual" performance was no closer to the Brecht/Weill original than was Louis Armstrong's. The clip of Brecht's own singing showed how neither composer nor librettist expected the melody and rhythm of the song to be so distorted. If we want to hear how it sounded in pre-Nazi Germany we can do - extracts from the original production were made in 1930, two years after it started, and with most of the original cast. Mackie Messer starts 46 secs in, and is very different from the bourgeois archness of the chap in the programme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF_jtz0kP9s

Or here we have the great Ernst Busch, 4'30" in. The film made in 1931.

[Barbirollians]

- the presenter-focussed Worsleyisms were at the heart of my own disquiet with the first programme: the "let's dress up and have fun" covering quite a narrow, superficial and not altogether accurate discussion of the History. (Though thankfully no "Bambi moments" in this programme.)

I was less enamoured of the performance of the Moritat von Mackie Messer than were Stanf, Bauxi, and Pasto - if the programme focussed on the history, then this somewhat "individual" performance was no closer to the Brecht/Weill original than was Louis Armstrong's. The clip of Brecht's own singing showed how neither composer nor librettist expected the melody and rhythm of the song to be so distorted. If we want to hear how it sounded in pre-Nazi Germany we can do - extracts from the original production were made in 1930, two years after it started, and with most of the original cast. Mackie Messer starts 46 secs in, and is very different from the bourgeois archness of the chap in the programme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF_jtz0kP9s

Yes the very mannered performance of Mackie Messer seemed very far away from Kurt Gerron's striking original which one might have thought considering Gerron ended up dying in Auschwitz after a torrid time in Theresienstadt would have been more apt to play .