Max Raabe and the Palast Orchestra perform cabaret and popular songs in German in the style of dance bands typical of the Weimar area of the 1920s and 1930s.

Presented by Celebrity Series of Boston and Boston Symphony Orchestra, Max Raabe & Palast Orchester performed March 19 at Boston’s Symphony Hall. Emily Goodling and Mark Roemisch took ten MIT students from second year German to the concert. The students were excited about how many German songs they could understand, were impressed by how the performance took them back in time and enjoyed being among a large crowd of Germans in the audience. (For a taste of the music, listen to “Max Raabe, Palast Orchester performs “Du bist viel zu schön für einen Mann allein.”)

The day before, on March 18, Dagmar Jaeger’s class 21G.409 Visual Arts, Media, Creative Expression attended a lecture/performance on the music of the Weimar area and their composers at the Goethe Institute Boston, given by the pianist of the Palast Orchestra, Ian Wekwerth. This event complemented students’ in-class study of the political/cultural scene in Germany between the wars and set the stage for the 21G.409 visit to the Busch Reisinger Museum at Harvard University on April 9 to experience German Modern art from the 1920s and 1930s firsthand.

Students talk with pianist Ian Wekwerth

Students visit the Busch Reisinger Museum