Nowhere is Weill's stature as one of the towering geniuses of twentieth-century musical theatre more evident than here.

Twenty-three years on I still vividly remember the impact of Andrew Porter's review of this recording when it first appeared as a special-order import. It portrayed a remarkable work unlike anything that I had experienced before; but subsequent familiarity with the recording, together with productions at Sadler's Wells in 1963, on BBC TV in 1965 and at Oxford in 1966 confirmed a fascination that it still has for me today. Weill's stature as one of the towering geniuses of twentieth-century musical theatre is confirmed with every work of his that I hear (as witness the recent Street Scene at the Royal Academy of Music), but nowhere is it more evident than here in this, his musically most extended collaboration with Brecht.

What ensures this recording its place as a unique document is the presence of the composer's widow, Lotte Lenya, in the cast. But it is on any count an impressive achievement, with some excellent performances—above all from Gisela Litz as Widow Begbick. At the same time, as I wrote when the recording came up for review again ten years ago, it needs not just Lenya's vivid presence but a real soprano to encompass the original vocal line and bring out the lyricism of the role of Jenny. Also, of course, it is only a mono recording, albeit respectably cleaned up in this electronically reprocessed version. I wrote ten years ago that it would be good to look forward to a new stereo Mahagonny, and I would repeat that now with the substitution of 'digital' for 'stereo'. But the prospect is perhaps no brighter now than it was then, so that I can only urge those who have missed the recording previously to catch up with it now. CBS supply a libretto, which thus enables listeners to know just what is going on. This is a recording which is a unique and fascinating document of a unique and fascinating work.

-- Gramophone [11/1983]