Eva-Maria Hagen with Siegfried Gerlich (piano)

Eva-Maria Hagen joined Brecht's Berliner Ensemble as a student actress in 1954, so she provides a direct link with the poet and dramatist. In her programme of homage to Bertolt Brecht (1898-1958) she sang settings of his songs by Eisler, Biermann, Brecht himself, Dessau and Weill, in arrangements by her accompanist Siegfried Gerlich.

The performance of these songs is far from easy as the right balance has to be struck between the operatic approach and the cabaret approach. This singer favoured the grit rather than the velvet and was so anxious to put Brecht's message across that her voice sometimes became a snarl. She lost the contrast between the hardness of the lyrics and the softness of the music - the very contrast in which the appeal of the songs lies and in her anxiety to point the words diminished the value of the music.

The words have lost none of their power, but members of the audience without any German must have found the direct and often over-emphatic cabaret style a hindrance to their appreciation.