*** 1/2 VARIOUS ARTISTS, “September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill,” Sony Classical

Considering the Weill revival that’s come since producer Hal Willner tapped the worlds of pop (Sting, Lou Reed) and the avant-garde (John Zorn) for “Lost in the Stars,” a 1985 tribute album to the German-born 20th century titan, this follow-up is hardly redundant.

For this collection--the soundtrack to a film of the same name that was itself inspired by the first album--Willner reaches even deeper and wider to encompass the emotional twists and torments of Weill’s best-known work.

Nick Cave and PJ Harvey are appropriate openers with “Mack the Knife” and “The Ballad of the Soldier’s Wife,” respectively--their own music echoes both Weill’s angular musical language and the jaundiced brand of humanism of such collaborators as Bertolt Brecht.

From there the album stretches from opera singer Teresa Stratas to elegiac jazz bassist Charlie Haden to a crusty turn by the late author William S. Burroughs. Elvis Costello adds a typically mordant reading of “Lost in the Stars,” and Lou Reed revisits “September Song,” milking it for all its deadpan melancholy.

The essential tracks, though, are two ringers: vintage German-sung recordings of “The Threepenny Opera” favorites “Pirate Jenny” by Weill’s widow, Lotte Lenya, and a 1930 performance of “Mackie Messer” (the original “Mack the Knife”) by Brecht. This is still merely an introduction, a “greatest hits” collection that presents the songs away from their historical and theatrical context. But like its predecessor, it stands tall on its own.

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