Morning Concert:
Composer Paul Dessau

Perhaps best known as the musician who, starting in 1944, composed scores for some of the plays and operas by Bertolt Brecht, including “Mother Courage” and “A Man Is A Man”, Paul Dessau was one of the most important political composers of the 20th century. In this program, recorded on May 7, 1976, Charles Amirkhanian talks with the East German musicologist Fritz Hennenberg, who was visiting the San Francisco Bay Area from his home in Leipzig. Hennenberg has authored two books on Paul Dessau and provides here countless tidbits of information about the composer and his partnership with Brecht. Also joining the discussion is Helga Lohr-Bailey, who also acts as a translator for Hennenberg, and Ronald G. Davis, the director of Epic West, a Bay Area organization dedicated to popularizing the works of Brecht, and the sponsor for Hennenberg’s visit. A generous selection of Dessau’s music, much of it from East German record labels, is also offered up for our enjoyment.