Search - Scott Merrill, Martin Wolfson, Jo Sullivan :: Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera Original Cast Album

Historical document inexcusably mangled by rogue producer

Icarustriumphant | New York City | 05/16/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Once again, CD producer Brian Drutman has remastered and reissued an all-time classic theater recording with a carelessness and indifference to spacing the tracks that borders on professional malpractice. There should be at least 5-6 seconds between the end of each song and the beginning of the next. Not so in a Brian Drutman reissue. Mr. Drutman and his engineers (usually Chris Roberts) leave no more than 1-2 seconds from the end of one song to the beginning of the next on this extraordinary recording; sometimes the next track begins instantaneously. What was he thinking? Is this some kind of contemporary pop music DJ sensibility misapplied to an original cast theater recording? Whatever the reason, it is nothing but artistically irresponsible to not allow the listener a moment's pause to absorb such mighty coups de theatre as Lenya's "Pirate Jenny" before racing into the next cue. Vandalism! Fie, fie, fie. It's utterly disgraceful. Drutman and his cronies do much the same on their other Decca reissues of classic original cast recordings, but there they usually insert 3-4 seconds between tracks (not enough) instead of 1-2. This one is their worst. Butchery. Write a letter to Decca, theater lovers. And they price their hackwork at $18.99 no less!"