Turning Points: 1990 - Berlin and Hollywood
During his time in Glasgow, two seemingly separate events shaped the next decade of hislife: the creation of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra for him as well as a long-term relationship with the Decca Record Company. This latter relationship led to Scottishopera’s first complete opera recordings (Marc Blitzstein’s Regina, restored to its original form by Mauceri with Tommy Krasker) and the first complete recording of an American work by Kurt Weill: Street Scene. In addition, Mauceri embarked on a series of award winning recordings in Berlin, first with works by Kurt Weill and then as a principal conductor on Decca’s Entartete Musik Series (“Degenerate Music,” or music banned by the Third Reich). Important recordings from this series include Weill’s die Dreigroschen Opera, Korngold’s das Wunder der Heliane and Irwin Schulhof’s Flammen.
Mauceri’s championing of works has led to numerous country premieres: the first performances in Portugal of Street Scene and Candide; the French premiere of Verdi’s I due Foscari; the Italian premiere of Street Scene and Sibelius’ third symphony, as well asthe world premiere of the restored Kurt Weill’s Bible pageant der Weg der Verheissung (The Eternal Road), which he conducted in Germany, Israel and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, celebrating the composer’s centenary.
Probably his most significant operatic restoration is his performing edition of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, which makes use of the original performance materialshoused at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and represents the composer’s final thoughts on his opera. This version had not been heard in seventy years. Recorded in February of 2006 by Mr. Mauceri and the Nashville Symphony on the Decca label, it garnered Mr. Mauceri’s second Diapason D’or.
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