When Kurt Weill went to Palestine

Our current Lebrecht Album of the Week has awoken multiple associations in various quarters of our global readership.

Among them is this astonishing picture, discovered by the Israel Philharmonic conductor Lahav Shani in a photographer’s shop, of the deeply-tanned composer attending a rehearsal of his orchestra in 1947.

Weill was visiting his aged parents who had found refuge from Germany in the seaside town of Nahariya. he wrote a beautiful version of the Friday-night kiddush prayer for his father, a retired cantor, as well as an orchestral version of the anthem Hatikvah for the Israel Philharmonic, which is rarely played.

Here’s the message from the IPO, dated March 2021, in mid-Covid:
This week, the orchestra, conducted by Lahav Shani, will give the first Israel Philharmonic performances of Symphony no. 2 by the Jewish German composer Kurt Weill.

The majority of Weill’s works were written for the stage. He collaborated with Bertold Brecht in many productions, including The Threepenny Opera, but also wrote works for symphony orchestra.
He began composing the Second Symphony in Germany, but was forced to leave his homeland when the Nazis came to power, emigrating to Paris, where he completed the work.
It was premiered with great success in October 1934 by the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, conducted by Bruno Walter.

Weill also had an Israeli connection: in 1947, Weill arrived in Palestine to visit his parents, who had immigrated from Germany and lived in Nahariya.

This photo, discovered accidently by our Music Director Lahav Shani during a visit to the Photo House in Tel Aviv, Weill is standing on the right with his foot on the podium, beside him conductor Eduard Lindenberg and behind them the Palestine Orchestra, which was renamed the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1948.