Edmund Meisel : Berlin : Die Sinfonie der Großstadt

   in Classical Music (May, 2012)
Walter Ruttmann’s 1927 silent film Symphony of a Metropolis tells the story of everyday life in 1920s Berlin – or rather the knock-your-socks-off music, here painstakingly reassembled and orchestrated, tells the story. In Meisel’s score, Weill rubs shoulders with Vaughan Williams, Berg with Prokofiev, with wholly engrossing results. Let us hope a DVD reuniting film with soundtrack will soon be forthcoming. Until then a video-only version is available online on YouTube. …