David Drew, Musicologist, Is Dead at 78
David Drew, a music critic and musicologist who almost single-handedly rescued the work of Kurt Weill from neglect and promoted him to his present position as an important 20th-century composer, died on July 25 in London. He was 78.
The death was confirmed by Carolyn Weber, the director and vice president of the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music.
Mr. Drew, a lifelong champion of under-recognized 20th-century composers, took on the cause of Weill, regarded as little more than as an appendage to Bertolt Brecht, shortly after the composer’s death in 1950.
Working with the singer Lotte Lenya and other members of the Brecht-Weill circle, he identified and located previously unknown stage and orchestral works, songs and choruses by Weill. Many of these had to be tracked down in scattered publishing houses around the world; some had to be reconstructed from partial scores. By lecturing, writing, editing, staging performances and organizing recordings, Mr. Drew agitated for Weill all over the world.
Read entire article at NYT
The death was confirmed by Carolyn Weber, the director and vice president of the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music.
Mr. Drew, a lifelong champion of under-recognized 20th-century composers, took on the cause of Weill, regarded as little more than as an appendage to Bertolt Brecht, shortly after the composer’s death in 1950.
Working with the singer Lotte Lenya and other members of the Brecht-Weill circle, he identified and located previously unknown stage and orchestral works, songs and choruses by Weill. Many of these had to be tracked down in scattered publishing houses around the world; some had to be reconstructed from partial scores. By lecturing, writing, editing, staging performances and organizing recordings, Mr. Drew agitated for Weill all over the world.