The Threepenny Opera is a play by Bertolt Brecht with music by Kurt Weill, inspired by jazz and German dance music of the 1920s. The Overture opens the play, and it sounds like Weill drew more upon European classical music, especially in the fugue-like section in the middle. "Mack the Knife" serves as a prologue to the play, introducing the main character Macheath. The song has become a jazz standard, recorded by artists like Bobby Darin, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra.
These two movements are selections from a suite from the opera, arranged by Raaf Hekkema of the Calefax Reed Quintet.
