Berlin! Berlin! Berlin!

With this recording Anne Sofie von Otter devotes herself to German chansons, film songs and cabaret numbers from the 1920s to 1940s, an era between splendor and abyss. Together with the Salon Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin under the direction of Adam Benzwi, a colorful panorama of Berlin cabaret, operetta, jazz and Weimar melancholy emerges. The infectious melodies of, among others, Friedrich Hollaender and Hanns Eisler, as well as the sharp texts of Bertolt Brecht or Bruno Balz, unite Berlin cabaret, operetta and early jazz influences into that unmistakable "Prussian swing," whose mix of march rhythms and syncopation lends this music its sober elegance. Behind the humor, melancholy and apparent lightness, the tensions and ruptures of their time also become audible. From absurd humor to existential despair, from spectacular revue to intimate ballads, a colorful panorama unfolds full of yearning, irony and zest for life. Anne Sofie von Otter demonstrates how timeless and relevant this music has remained to this day.