Some who collect older recordings of classical music on shellac and mono vinyl may be acquainted with the name of Walter Goehr; as conductor, he made hundreds of recordings of classical music ranging from standard classics to total obscurities for a wide variety of mostly budget labels between 1933 and his untimely death in 1960. But even relatively few among such collectors would be aware that Goehr was also a composer and a pioneer in the uniquely European form of radio opera. Between 1929 and 1932 -- when he and his ...
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Some who collect older recordings of classical music on shellac and mono vinyl may be acquainted with the name of Walter Goehr; as conductor, he made hundreds of recordings of classical music ranging from standard classics to total obscurities for a wide variety of mostly budget labels between 1933 and his untimely death in 1960. But even relatively few among such collectors would be aware that Goehr was also a composer and a pioneer in the uniquely European form of radio opera. Between 1929 and 1932 -- when he and his family relocated to London so Goehr could accept a position as a music director at the Gramophone Company -- this member of the Schoenberg school was one of the busiest composers in German radio. Malpopita (1931) was his second opera for radio, a Dadaistic comedy combining futurist elements with Brechtian irony; young Adam (sung by Thorsten Hennig) is sick of working in the Metropolis-like factory that employs him and longs to escape to the exotic island of Malpopita to live a life of...
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