The music of doomed Weimar-era Berlin has had various explorations, dating back to the
Kander and
Ebb musical Cabaret (1966) and beyond. Such explorations have been somewhat rare in the 2000s, but perhaps the era's moment has come again. And maybe more: the program offered here by Paris singer and songwriter
Marion Rampal (no relation to
Jean-Pierre) is wide-ranging and covers territory untouched by the
Brecht and
Weill concerts of
Ute Lemper, not to mention
the Doors. She delves into classical repertory and shows its connections with the cabaret song, casting an effective mood of gloom over the whole and finding the string quartet medium as an effective bridge among the repertories represented here. The works of
Erwin Schulhoff, generally mentioned only in grim connections with the music he wrote in a concentration camp before his death there, are especially powerful. Best of all is the voice of
Rampal, who has a tall order: she has to sing convincingly in German, English, and French (
Joel Grey's MC song from Cabaret is evoked), and master classical vocal idioms, jazz, and pop by turns, and she is compelling everywhere. Much of the music is quite rare. The American contributions of the composers who fled to Hollywood are touched upon, and the album will contribute to the growing groundswell for the revival of Billy Wilder's dark 1948 comedy A Foreign Affair, represented in a pair of acid songs by
Friedrich Hollaender. But sample for a moment the one piece that is really familiar, Die Morität von Mackie Messer, known in the anglophone world as Mack the Knife. The tune is examined from various perspectives, as if to set a frame for the program as a whole, but also to suggest the various dark currents swirling around Germany in the late 1920s. It's chilling, and the album as a whole may be a defining moment of the year 2018. ~ James Manheim