KÁLMÁN Der Zigeunerprimas ? Claus Peter Flor, cond; Gabriele Rossmanith (Sári); Edith Lienbacher (Juliska); Zoran Todorovich (Gaston); Roberto Saccà (Laczi); Wolfgang Bankl ( Pali Rácz ); Sunnyi Melles (narr); Munich RSO; Slovakian P Ch; Bavarian St. Op Children?s Ch ? cpo 777 058 (2 CDs: 101:23)


About three years ago, the Ohio Light Opera released an English-language recording of the complete score, with dialogue, of Kálmán?s early hit Zigeunerprimas (?The Gypsy Violinmaster?). Known to its first American audiences by the name of its heroine, Sári , this story of generational conflict in a family of Hungarian musicians offers ample opportunities for local color á la Hongroise , in so doing providing a resume of the shifting styles of central European operetta at the turn of the century. In my review of that release (26:1), I noted that the composer frequently timed the American and European premieres of his stage works so as to maximize their impact on both sides of the Atlantic, to great success, and with a notable impact on his style, which embraced ?American? dance forms and syncopations faster than did the works of his continental contemporaries


I also noted that the virtues of the Ohio recording lay primarily in the quality of the playing?higher than is often the case from that summer-stock company?and the naturalness of the atmosphere. Surprisingly, while the new recording scores in many areas by comparison, especially in the quality of the direction, orchestral playing, and interpretation (hardly surprising, given the provenance of the musicians), not to mention that it is presented in the original German, the less-polished Ohio effort remains a surprisingly resilient contender.


The reason for this has more to do with the presentation than the performance. If the German recording had merely been cut, or if it consisted solely of musical excerpts, one would be able to rue a loss in dramatic continuity, particularly in the many involving melodramas that run through the score. But the producers have gone a step further, introducing a narrator, who intrudes between musical numbers not only to provide plot summary, which she delivers somewhat in the manner of a carnival barker, but also snatches of dialogue. In itself, the voice of Sunnyi Melles serves the purpose, but when she is called upon to embody the old gypsy violin master and his son, even when they are arguing with one other, one wishes the radio studio had at least hired some other actors. Perhaps to save airtime in the broadcast, dialogue is cut and summarized, often archly and pompously. Elsewhere, the recording falters with a grating, stilted use of a children?s choir in Sari?s entrance scene. While the number calls on her to interact with a group of children, their stilted laughter and clockwork ?oohs? and ?aahs? suck spontaneity out of the moment.


Yet the virtues of the present recording are obvious from the first chords of the overture, with its idiomatically sensitive rubato phrasing, suggesting both an authentic ?Hungarian? flavor and the underlying melancholy?the sense of loss?of the title character. Particularly apt are the many stylistic shifts, which correspond to the changing traditions and tastes reflected in the different musical worlds of father and son. The virtuosic solo violin passages keyed to the father?s world have their folk-music roots underscored by a generous application of cimbalom (an effect missing from the Ohio production); Claus Peter Flor captures the springing fox-trot and waltz rhythms of the son?s emphatically turn-of-the-century world with a constant sense of interest. Narration aside, the finely balanced recording and orchestral playing are almost worth the price of admission.


As the ?Gypsy Master? Pali Racz himself, Wolfgang Bankl projects a weighty and appropriate sense of age, his baritone a bit woolly and weary but constantly in the part. The key moment is his character?s final humiliation. Greeted as an exotic, Racz is asked to play at a Parisian party where his son has already scored with appropriately light and ?modern? dance music. But the bored guests viciously ridicule his old-fashioned gypsy virtuosity as ?horrible scratching.? Bankl invests his voice here with palpable heartbreak, as he sings the reprise of his love song to his ?old Stradivarius.? The finality with which he packs up his career and delivers his prized old instrument to the son he has always undervalued is truly moving.


Bankl?s ?older? voice effectively contrasts with the heroic sound of Zoran Todorovich as his rival and Sari?s eventual love-interest, Gaston. Todorovich has become a constant at Austrian operetta festivals in recent years, and the baritonal steel of his voice does render Gaston a convincing romantic lead. The other roles are also well cast. Edith Lienbacher?s Juliska is light and a bit warbly, but blends glowingly with Roberto Saccà?s light tenor (as the put-upon son Laczi), particularly in the duet at the opening of the second act, whose own distilled Wagnerism bears more than a passing similarity to the Pavillon duet from The Merry Widow . Gabriele Rossmanith rounds out the principals with a powerfully sung Sari. Special mention should also be made of the excellent solo violin work that runs throughout; much of this score comes across as a kind of ?violin concerto in the form of an operetta,? but the soloist unfortunately goes uncredited.


Now that we finally have a recording of Zigeunerprimas in its original language, the choice is clear but difficult. For theatrical atmosphere and a sense of how Kálmán?s theater works for the American stage, the OLO recording may do nicely; but for atmosphere, color, interpretation, and sheer vocalism, the Munich recording comes out far ahead. If only that narrator could somehow be plucked out, I could recommend the new cpo recording without reservations.


FANFARE: Christopher Williams

Reznicek's Symphony No. 5, subtitled "Dance Symphony", is a hoot. Its four movements comprise a polonaise, czardas, ländler, and tarantella--but don't think for a minute that they trip along lightly. Like Rachmaninov in his Symphonic Dances, Reznicek evidently had in mind a sort of "dance of death" program (indeed, the piece was choreographed as a ballet). Imagine a huge orchestral fresco on the order of Strauss' Elektra, only without the voices, and you'll get the picture.

The Second Symphony, the "Ironic", couldn't be more different. It's perky jeu d'esprit scored for classical orchestra--light and almost inconsequential, but full of sly humor that may take a couple of hearings in order to come across clearly. In a sense this is musician's music, the sort of thing a very experienced composer would write to amuse himself, and perhaps his colleagues, and it won't be to all tastes, though it's certainly not difficult to listen to. Indeed, the most ironic thing about it, like Mahler's Fourth, which it resembles in some respects, is its false naivety.

The performance of the Fifth Symphony is big, gutsy, and colorful, as the score demands, but the Second's chamber-like textures and reduced orchestration clearly tests the mettle of the Bern Symphony players, principal winds especially. It's one thing to make a big noise, with massed strings, brass, and percussion all blasting away with abandon, and quite another to project a work consisting largely of delicate, solo melodic threads. The players cannot have known this music all that well, and the outer movements of the "Ironic" strike the ear as frankly under-rehearsed--under-tempo and lacking in the requisite sparkle. Absent a score I can't say exactly by how much the performance fails to realize Reznicek's evident intentions, but that at least is how it sounds. So while the Fifth Symphony deserves your attention, the Second requires a bit more indulgence, although I am still happy to recommend this disc as yet further evidence of the composer's talent and undeserved neglect. The engineering is very good too.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Five string quartets by Carl Reinecke from all the phases of his career, from it's beginnings to his old age, are extant. He himself played the first violin in his father's quartet and in this way very early became acquainted with an extensive quartet repertoire. When he began composing his first quartet, he not only was familiar with the contributions to this genre by Mozart and Beethoven but also knew Schumann's brand new Quartets op. 41. Reinecke pays homage to Schumann's music in particular in the lyrical moments of his Quartet No. 2. He composed the Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 during his years as the conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. No. 3 surprises us with it's expansive key plans, which also make us sit up and take notice in his subsequent quartets and undermine the clich� of a epigone who rigidly adhered to convention and academism. In his last contribution to the genre, the Quartet No. 5, he remains true to his style. This work perhaps sounds somewhat less like Schumann and somewhat more like Brahms, whose music Reinecke very much admired.

This release features the first complete recording ever of the cello sonatas of the Worms late romanticist Friedrich Gernsheim, with encores in the form of his only two cello pieces with piano. For the virtuoso parts in his three cello sonatas, Gernsheim could draw on his own brilliant piano technique, which he had demonstrated already in 1850 as an eleven-year-old child prodigy. The five works span five decades. The Sonata in D minor op. 12 from 1868 continues to follow the paths of Mendelssohn’s two sonatas, while the Sonata in E minor op. 79 of 1906 is a dramatically charged work in the style of the turn of the century. The cello composition Elohenu of 1881 and the Andante op. 64bis from 1898 are situated between them chronologically. Two years prior to his death Gernsheim reworked the last movement of his Sonata in E minor and wrote two completely new movements for the first and second positions. The result was the Sonata in E minor op. 87 of 1914, the seventy-five-year-old composer’s farewell to his epoch on the eve of World War I. Alexander Hulshoff and Oliver Triendl perform these works with aplomb.

Columbus: Dramatic Cantata for Soloists, Male Choir, Mixed Choir, and Full Orchestra op. 11, which celebrated its premiere at the Graz Music Society Concert Hall on 4 December 1870, is an extraordinary work within Heinrich von Herzogenberg’s oeuvre as a whole and differs greatly from many other compositions by him. During his younger years Herzogenberg was very much attracted to Wagner and the “New German” style – which also had an impact on his Columbus. He designed his musical occupation with this subject in an innovative manner, producing a work that is a combination of the stage and concert genres. Like Wagner, he wrote the libretto himself and did so while following the model provided by the typical four-part sequence of a drama with a presentation, an intensification, a climactic or turning point, and a resolution. After the successful premiere a review appeared in the Grazer Tagespost that is all the more interesting insofar as it was penned by Friedrich Hausegger, a member of the “progressive camp.” If we think merely of Herzogenberg as the Brahms emulator of his middle and later creative phases, then Hausegger’s words correct our one-sided picture of the composer: “We were most pleasantly surprised by his Columbus. With it the composer proved not only that he can assemble little elements, perhaps ones formed in imitation, to produce a well-formed whole but also that he can draw on impressive resources, that he is able to master a significant subject with a bold and sure hand.” Unlike his later practice with his model Brahms, in his Columbus Herzogenberg did not end up following Wagner to the extreme stylistically. However, it is precisely his thoroughly independent as well as inspired musical treatment of this subject that is a source of special fascination.

Johann Rosenm�ller compiled an impressive oeuvre of more than two hundred vocal and instrumental works. On the occasion of this composer's four hundredth birthday, the Ensemble 1684 is presenting a CD with a cross section of his music including the world-premiere recordings of four of his large-dimensioned concertos. Rosenm�ller's post as a teacher at the St. Thomas School introduced him to an exciting musical and academic environment that greatly stimulated him. Very early he displayed his talent for absorbing artistic and cultural influences. The St. Thomas cantor Tobias Michael and the Dresden court music director Heinrich Sch�tz were of particular significance here. The new Italian concerto models with which Sch�tz had become acquainted during his second stay in Venice were above all a source of inspiration for Rosenm�ller, who very soon also began experimenting with them. A masterful compositional craftsman and contrapuntist of Sch�tzian stamp!

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Martín Palmeri's tango mass is inspired by his native Argentina's traditional tango and in particular by Astor Piazzolla's tango nuevo. Piazzolla developed a "new tango" intended no longer as dance music but for the concert stage; by incorporating contemporary forms and musical developments it gave rise to a complex genre of art music. The Misa a Buenos Aires premiered by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuba in 1996 demonstrates Palmeri's impressive and equally entertaining talent for integrating stylistic features of the tango into his compositions. The textual basis of the work is the classical Catholic Ordinary of the Mass as it has been set to music for centuries. The scoring for mezzo-soprano, mixed choir, tango quartet, and string orchestra remains close to the authentic ensembles of the tango orchestras of Palmeri's native country. Here what is above all exciting is how imaginatively he employs the playing resources of the instruments. Typical techniques of the tango, this rhythmically emphatic dance in which the melody instruments are also used percussively to give impulses, play an important role here. The outstanding employment of the bandoneón, sometimes as a singing voice, then again as a rhythm instrument, here guarantees the preservation of the "tango soul." Melodic leading, harmony, and the rhythmic structures are also recognizable as tango stylistic means to non-experts. It is with great melodic imaginative richness that Palmeri blends the various tone colors of the tango with the various characteristics of the individual parts of the mass. The Gloria, premiered in 2014, a good eighteen years after the tango mass, is of somewhat greater complexity – both in compositional technique and in harmony – and leaves behind the pleasant tone of the mass. In all of its parts, however, here too the melodic and emotional expressive variety remains. Here European tradition and the tango are brought together in a finely crafted and compelling manner.

WAGENSEIL Symphonies: in g, WV 418; in B?, WV 438; in C, WV 351; in G, WV 413; in B?, WV 441 • Michi Gaigg, cond; L’Orfeo Baroque O (period instruments) • cpo 999 450 (62:19)


WAGENSEIL Symphonies: in C, WV 361; in F, WV 398; in D, WV 374; in A, WV 432; in E, WV 393; in A, WV 421 • Johannes Goritzki, cond; Stuttgart CO • cpo 777 112 (54:24)


Who was the most popular symphonist of the 1760s? Franz Josef Haydn, of course. Manuscripts and published editions of his early symphonies have been found throughout Western and Central Europe, from Italy to Sweden, Britain to Russia, in monasteries, court libraries, and private collections. But who was the most popular symphonist of the 1750s? Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715–1777) lays claim to that honor, with over 300 copies of 57 symphonic works disseminated across Europe. It was just Wagenseil’s bad luck, and that of many of his contemporaries, that his fame faded rapidly after his death. Most people equate quality with the final flowering of a form, and have little regard for the ingenuity with which it is treated in an earlier age.


Yet Wagenseil was no lightweight. Fux praised him greatly at the outset of his career, while esteemed critics such as Burney and Schubart did so in later years. He became a renowned harpsichord composer and performer, a greatly loved teacher whose pupils included several leading figures in the following generation, and a disciple of Baroque giants such as Handel even as his own music followed changing public tastes. To Maria Theresa he was the favorite court composer who would improvise fugues on demand, and who was paid wages for his lessons to the royal family considerably in excess of his yearly salary. His symphonies and operas were performed regularly at Esterházy during Haydn’s time there as Kapellmeister—but then his works circulated widely to general appreciation. A copy of his Lessons for Harpsichord even turned up in Thomas Jefferson’s personally written 1783 catalog of his musical manuscripts.


As a symphonist, Wagenseil followed the old three-movement Italian model, only substituting fast sonata-form finales in most cases for a dance movement. Over time, his slow movements and finales became notably more substantial than those of his predecessors. The Andante from the Symphony in B? Major, WV 441, is an excellent example of his art, from the descending open chords of its introduction to the breadth of its thematic material, and the richness of its subsequent development. His opening movements and finales tended to build upon short-breathed phrases that avoided the clichéd through some distinctive feature: the irregular phrase lengths and sudden leaps that lead off the Symphony in E Major, WV 393, furnish one example. Another, at the beginning of the finale to the Symphony in G Minor, WV 418, features propulsive rhythms surging back and forth under a descending g?-D?-d-G figure: heady crack-of-doom stuff, contradicted by the galant material that immediately follows in the interests of balance, but all the more impressive for what Wagenseil achieves during their combined development. None of these works take longer than a quarter of an hour to perform, and a couple of the earliest are in reality five-minute overtures, but there isn’t a single one that lacks memorability.


Of the two performing ensembles thus far engaged for this series, I prefer the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. While enjoying the clarity and timbral diversity L’Orfeo achieves, their wiry string tone and occasionally faulty intonation are drawbacks. The Stuttgart musicians possess a darker, less varied tone, and under Goritzki’s direction are more flexible in their rhythms and phrasing within the bounds of currently acceptable historical practice. They’re recorded somewhat distantly, however, losing some of their instrumental color in the process, while L’Orfeo benefits from close miking. The liner notes to the second volume are good, but the essay accompanying the first volume is longer, more detailed, and goes some way to establishing at least a sense of the environment in which Wagenseil operated.


In short, both volumes can be recommended, though I suggest listening to Gaigg/L’Orfeo before buying to see if your reaction to their sound differs significantly from mine. The music, in any case, is excellent throughout. Two thumbs up to cpo—and here’s to expectations of a third volume, soon.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

The kind of ‘popular’, socially functional dance music which is quite prominent in the work of, say, Haydn and Mozart plays a less central role – for all kind of obvious reasons – in the output of Beethoven. But such music does exist, and here is a fine, richly enjoyable anthology of it.

The twelve German Dances (WoO 8) were written for the annual masked ball of the Pension Society of Viennese Painters, held on 14th November, 1795. The society had a tradition of commissioned distinguished composers to write new music for the ball – Beethoven’s predecessors included Haydn and Dittersdorf. The young Beethoven’s contribution is, by his standards, rather slight in nature, but the dances have real charm and are not without a degree of sophistication. No.6, for example, employs some unexpected accents over a pseudo-rustic drone in a manner that is quite engaging. No.5 has some pleasant writing for the clarinets; no.10 makes entertaining use of the piccolo and of the triangle and tambourine in a kind of alla turca idiom. No.12 has a surprising coda, with a solo for posthorn, before a rather grand conclusion – so grand, indeed, that it must surely have taken the dancers by surprise!

The six minuets (WoO 9) belong to the same period, but are for strings alone (supplemented here by a harp). They are simple pieces, pleasantly melodic and largely unambitious in execution. In no.3 the alternations between pizzicato and arco are attractive; in no.5 the triplet accompaniment by the second violins has a particular grace.

Beethoven’s 12 contredanses (kontretänze) (WoO 14) were again written for the ballrooms of Vienna, a few years after the earlier sets of dances. They are lively and politely brilliant. In some of them one seems to detect touches that belong to Beethoven rather than just to the genre in which he was writing. It is certainly interesting to note that the seventh and the 11th dances share material with Beethoven’s ballet music The Creatures of Prometheus; the seventh is also echoed in the final movement of the Eroica.

The final set of dances on this CD belongs to a later period. The eleven ‘Mödlinger’ dances were, it seems likely, written in the wooded suburb of Vienna which bears that name, in 1819. That, we should remind ourselves, is the year of the Hammerklavier sonata and of the commencement of the Ninth symphony. These, in short, are the work of a fully mature Beethoven. Beethoven had real financial problems at this time, so it may well be that these dances were written for primarily commercial reasons; but it would, I think, be wrong to imagine that Beethoven didn’t take their composition at all ‘seriously’. Certainly they are far more sophisticated than the dances considered so far. They explore a range of forms – there are four waltzes, five minuets and two ländlers. There is a genial smile to all of the music; there are plenty of sparkling passages as, quite without condescension, Beethoven writes wonderfully accessible music. But it is also music that gets better at second and third hearings. These are delightful, small-scale masterpieces, in their own way just as worthy of attention as the far greater works that Beethoven wrote at much the same time.

The performances of L’Orfeo Barockorchester, playing on period instruments and directed by Michi Gaigg, are exemplary. The sense of scale is perfectly judged, distinctions of tempo and rhythm are clear but unexaggerated; the sound of the winds is particularly well-blended and the strings play with zestfully clear articulation. The sense is of an orchestra that sounds as though it is enjoying its work and is eager to share its own pleasure. One doesn’t often get the chance to hear these dances – and one certainly doesn’t often get the chance to hear them played so well, with both energy and sensitivity.

-- Glyn Pursglove, MusicWeb International

Includes work(s) by Antonio Lotti.

The music of Christian Sinding was highly thought of in its day and the composer certainly had his champions. Before the Second World War it was regularly played in Europe and America and was extremely popular in Germany. In 1907 his Second Symphony was premièred in Berlin by Felix Weingartner and the Third Symphony in 1920 in Leipzig under Arthur Nikisch.

Although Sinding lived in Germany for most of his life he was Norwegian by birth and had the luxury of receiving generous stipends from the Norwegian government for many years. Since his death in 1941 - and probably before that - he has been known for a single piece for solo piano the popular Frühlingsrauschen (Rustle of Spring). In the last decade there has been renewed interest with a number of recordings especially from Hyperion, Simax, Finlandia, Naxos and CPO.

Soloist Ukraine-born Andrej Bielow has a strong connection with Hanover studying in the city from the age of fifteen at the University of Music and Drama. He plays a Guarneri ‘Joseph Filius’ violin (c. 1730/35) loaned by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.

The NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover is no stranger to Sinding’s music. They have already recorded Sinding’s four symphonies on two separate discs with Symphonies No.1 and No.2 conducted by Thomas Dausgaard and Symphonies No.3 and No.4 under David Porcelijn.

The set opens with the Violin Concerto No. 3 in A minor composed in 1916/17. Shortly after completion it received its première at Bergen played by Leif Halvorsen. At times I was reminded melodically of Brahms especially in the extended opening movement. Bielow plays virtually continuously throughout in music that varies between moody and windswept. A yearningly emotional Andante has shades of the Sibelius and Nielsen concertos composed between six and ten years earlier. Finally in the Allegro non troppo the mood becomes more uplifting with the orchestra gaining greater prominence although Sinding’s writing feels rather lightweight.

The Legend for Violin and Orchestra from 1900 was given its first performance in Stockholm two years later. Initially the orchestral writing felt evocative of Elgar. Coming across as rather strait-laced the Legend takes itself rather seriously yet contains a degree of warmth communicated through Bielow’s long melodic line. I’m not sure if Sinding felt any special affinity or significance for his tender and warm Romance as he allocated the opus 100 to the 1910 score. Bielow’s solo line and orchestration reminded me of the Delius concerto; a work that was composed some six years later.

Sinding’s first Violin Concerto in A major was written in 1897/98. It seems it was completed in London and premièred later the same year in Oslo. Summery melodies in the manner of Dvorák inhabit the opening movement with bustling extended lines from the soloist. Low strings open the Andante suggesting a darkly-hued temperament set amid a strong sense of melancholy. In the central passage the music develops a weightier funereal tread which must surely be a commemoration of a significant loss. Buoyancy and exhilaration pervade the Finale, Allegro giocoso. Noticeably Sinding’s writing varies widely in pace and emotional content. At times Bielow is required to play at breakneck speed which certainly blows away any cobwebs.

CD two opens with the Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major first performed in 1901 in Berlin. The score’s dedicatee was the soloist Henri Marteau. It was a great success at the première. This work is predominantly wistful in nature. Bielow is required to play virtually continually throughout. At times I was reminded of Dvorák’s violin concerto. A lengthy orchestral introduction precedes a severe and dark-hued Andante. Serving as a stark contrast the Finale, Allegro is a light-hearted romp through verdant Norwegian pastures.

Originally composed in 1886/87 as a suite for violin and piano Sinding’s Suite in A Minor was not published until nearly twenty years later in this arrangement for small orchestra. The opening Presto is breezy and exhilarating in the manner of Dvorák followed by a warm-hearted Adagio of much tenderness. Marked Tempo giusto the final movement just glows with happiness. The Abendstimmung is a product of the Great War years. As the German title suggests the writing establishes a picturesque evening mood. This short single movement score is a sultry nocturne suffused with warm and summery temperament.

Bielow never over-indulges himself, taking a sensible middle-ground approach. He comes across as a sensitive and responsive violinist with a splendid technique who is equally at home with virtuosic requirements as he is in rapt emotion. Under the baton of Frank Beermann the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover come across as committed partners. They do not disappoint.

On this CPO release it took me a while to get used to the sound which is best heard with the volume turned up. The balance and overall impression is agreeable but I’m not sure how well Bielow’s Guarneri is served by the recording. The instrument’s timbre is rather thin and bright in repertoire that would surely have benefited from more warmth and sweetness. The presentation is enhanced by a detailed essay. The front cover uses a stunning image by Zemo Diemer titled ‘Fjord with a steamship’.

For those approaching Sinding’s music for the first time what should they expect? It is hard to hear a very individual voice in Sinding’s late-Romantic music. Seemingly highly derivative in nature, I felt the music mainly echoed the sound-worlds of Brahms and Dvorák. Sinding’s design seems to favour a thickly textured opening movement Allegro with a rather dark and sombre slow central movement. Only in the brisk final movements do things lighten up. There the music is usually cheerful and of a fresher, breezy quality.

Sinding’s music is appealing and has its share of impressive moments although in truth it contains very little in the way of memorable melodies.

-- Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

A brand new recording in excellent sound and a Sou-Chong to challenge even the great tenors on other sets … well worth consideration.

After Franz Lehár’s initial success with Die lustige Witwe in 1905 – an operetta that harked back to the jolly 19th century works of Johann Strauss II, Millöcker and Suppé – he gradually changed direction. For him there were to be new dramaturgical models including the “lyric operetta” where the focus is on the ‘inner world of the figures’ as Doris Sennefelder puts it in her perspective building notes to this issue. Paganini, Der Zarewitsch and Friederike are all in this mould and in Das Land des Lächelns a further aspect comes to the fore, the cultural clash between East and West. The Viennese Lisa falls in love with the Chinese Prince Sou-Chong but she can’t accept the demands of Chinese values. As in every operetta of the traditional kind act 2 ends in bitter conflict. So does Die lustige Witwe but there everything is sorted out in the third act as Hanna and Danilo dance away to eternal happiness – or so we believe. In Das Land des Lächelns the conflict is resolved insofar as Sou-Chong allows Lisa to leave China and return to Vienna. He displays some humanity after all but this does not really lead to increased understanding.

The Chinese or ‘Oriental’ setting was by no means unique to opera and operetta of the late 19th and the early 20th century. Massenet’s Le roi de Lahore and Delibes’ Lakmé are well-known examples. Mascagni’s Iris and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly are others and even Gilbert and Sullivan went Asian in The Mikado. Later Lehár and Puccini actually worked in parallel on Chinese projects, Puccini with Turandot and Lehár with Die gelbe Jacke which was premiered in 1923. It was later revised and presented in new guise in 1929 with Richard Tauber in the main lead. Then it was a tremendous success. This was Das Land des Lächelns.

There is no denying that Lehár was a tremendously skilful composer. The Chinese allusions in the score are no less striking than corresponding music in Turandot. The procession with chorus at the beginning of act 2 could just as well have been written by Puccini. It is followed by a highly attractive Chinese ballet suite. Towards the end of the act the wedding procession is colourful and powerful, also incorporating quotations from Sou-Chong’s first act song Von Apfelblüten einen Kranz.

This recording is the fourth of a Lehár operetta from CPO to have come my way the last couple of years and it is in the main very successful. Ulf Schirmer, who also conducted Schön ist die Welt (review), secures excellent playing from the Munich Radio Orchestra. His choices of tempo seem unerringly right. He is very close to Otto Ackermann in the historical 1953 recording now on Naxos (review) and that is my benchmark. The long overture, with quotations from the music that follows, very clearly prepares the listener for a largely serious, even tragic play and the ballet suite in act 2 is excellently played. The chorus is also splendid. For once in a recording with spoken dialogue between the musical numbers the balance is such that one need not turn up the volume every time to hear the dialogue properly. Recorded at three live performances the technicians have succeeded in finding the best of both worlds and there is hardly any evidence of an audience. There is quite a lot of dialogue but it is separately tracked and for repeated listening this leaves the choice open for those who want to hear only the music numbers.

There is a delightful but small-voiced second couple with Julia Bauer’s Mi, who sings a charming dancing song in act 2, and Alexander Kaimbacher’s Gustl, who is agreeably lyrical in the duet with Mi in the same act. Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund as Lisa is a bit uneven and her uppermost notes tend to be rather hard and strained. She can also be lyrically appealing, not least in duet, and in the dark-tinted and operatic finale to act 2 she delivers strong dramatic singing. Prince Sou-Chong is sung by Polish tenor Piotr Beczala and he is plainly superb with a good ring in the more outgoing music. Most of all though he impresses through delicious lyric singing with carefully judged nuances that cannot be taken for granted in operetta.

I have complained in the past about sloppy presentation from CPO but in this respect they have made amends. They give us both a detailed track-list and a fairly good synopsis in three languages. I still think that a full libretto would be useful – even for German speakers.

I am not fully au fait with all existing alternative versions. Ackermann’s recording, mentioned above, with Schwarzkopf, Gedda, Loose and Kunz is a classic and at Naxos price unbeatable. Gedda’s stereo remake with Anneliese Rothenberger as Lisa is a splendid alternative and EMI’s third offer, Boskovsky’s recording with Jerusalem and Helen Donath, also has much to commend it. Robert Stolz with Rudolf Schock and Margit Schramm will certainly give pleasure, though I haven’t heard it, but for a brand new recording in excellent sound and a Sou-Chong to challenge even the great tenors on the other sets, this is well worth consideration.

-- Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Includes sonata(s) by Johann Philipp Krieger. Ensembles: Parnassi musici, Bavarian Chamber Orchestra Bad Brückenau members.

After Telemann had composed the “French Cycle,” he wrote his annual cycle for 1716/17 in the Italian style, the other style then current in the music world. This style is characterized by the “konzertierendes Prinzip,” that is, by the seemingly playful and relaxed but nonetheless finely organized treatment of motifs and themes manifesting itself in the instrumental concerto but also in the great opera aria. Telemann’s cycle in which he employed the stylistic elements developed in Italy was therefore termed the “Concerten-Jahrgang” and sometimes even the “Italian Cycle.” In 1716/17 Telemann composed and performed the church compositions from Advent to the Third Day of Pentecost. The second half of the annual cycle extending from Trinity Sunday to the end of the church year followed in 1719/20. The present release brings together four compositions, two from the first half of the annual cycle and two from the subsequently composed second half. The “konzertierendes Prinzip” is developed in different ways in each piece. This performance with the Mannheimer Hofkapelle and Ex Tempore under Florian Heyerick was one of the highlights of the Telemann Festival Days in 2016.

During the third concert in our series "Music from Wolfenbüttel Castle" in 2017, sacred compositions from the Opus Novum of Daniel Selichius were presented and recorded. Selichius was born in Wittenberg in 1581 and succeeded Michael Praetorius as court chapel master in Wolfenbüttel during 1621-26. His oeuvre includes the twenty-four sacred concertos of his Opus Novum of Sacred Latin and German Concertos and Psalms of David. This collection published in Wolfenbüttel in 1624 was one of the earliest printed collections of fully dimensioned sacred concertos in Protestant Germany. For these concertos we once again have obtained the services of the Weser-Renaissance Ensemble of Bremen under its conductor Prof. Dr. Manfred Cordes. This ensemble specializes in early music and over the decades has produced interpretations of Baroque music regarded as exemplary in this field.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Along with Wilhelm Stenhammar and Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, Hugo Alfvén surely ranks with the leading composers of Swedish late romanticism. In the country of his birth he made a name for himself above all with his compositions inspired by Swedish folklore, one of which, Midsommarvaka, his most famous work, is heard on Vol. 1 of our new edition of his complete symphonic works. It is both astonishing and impressive that Alfvén, who previously had composed nothing more than a few piano pieces, songs, and chamber works, suddenly came forward in 1897 with a full-length symphony of some forty minutes in length. This highly regarded Symphony No. 1 exhibits very finely nuanced tone colors, and with it he immediately became known as a capable and experienced composer. Alfvén composed Drapa, a monumental, magnificent, and festive work with the subtitle “King Oscar II in memoriam,” for a gala event at the Royal College of Music and conducted its premiere on 18 October 1908. For our ambitious project we have secured the support of the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin and Lukasz Borowicz – one of Germany’s best orchestras and one of today’s most promising young conductors.

Friedrich Gernsheim’s chamber music figures significantly in his extensive oeuvre, where it occupies a position next to his symphonic music. Along with his works scored for piano and his diverse sonatas, it is above all in the genre of the string quartet that Gernsheim achieved great merit. On Vol. 1 of our complete recording the Diogenes Quartet interprets his first and third quartets. It is primarily in the latter work that he demonstrates his masterful command of compositional technique. The first movement requires performers with a firm metrical feel; agogic insertions occasion the blurring of time structures. The last movement is a variation movement and again a masterpiece, and after a lento it leads to a powerful and sonorous conclusion. Once you’ve heard these string quartets, you’ll wonder why after the leaden years prior to the war and then after it this genius never again returned to the concert halls. Why was there no Gernsheim revival, when Mendelssohn and Mahler revivals took place in German concert halls? Our four previously released albums and these quartets by this composer demonstrate that quality could not have been the reason for his exclusion.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky came behind Prokofiev and Shostakovich and along with Khachaturian in the “Big Four” of Soviet music. Following the releases of Kabalevsky’s four symphonies, his complete works for piano and orchestra and the two cello concertos, CPO now presents the composer’s music for solo piano. This release includes the three piano sonatas and the two important rondos while a future release will feature the complete preludes. There is also a short set of Three Rondos Op. 30 but as these pieces are nothing more than short and easy transcriptions from Kabalevsky’s opera “Colas Breugnon” they are not included here. Few careers are so closely linked to the recording medium as that of the pianist Michael Korstick. Among critics and experts in the piano world the Cologne-born Korstick has long enjoyed renown as one of the leading German pianists. Critics repeatedly emphasize the outstanding balance maintained by him between brilliant virtuosity and musical introspection, so richly informed by his striking personality and by his uncompromising faithfulness to the works he performs.

Julius Bauer, a man known not only for his intelligent, original, and witty texts but also as Vienna’s most influential theater critic, wrote the libretto for Die Juxheirat in 1904. This wild, dizzying, surprising, and bold work was far ahead of its times as well as reminiscent of The Taming of the Shrew – only carried to the absolute extreme. The shrew is a frustrated widow and suffragette, and the male protagonist is just the opposite of a lady-tamer: overtaxed and irritated, he just wants to live out his love. Michael Lakner, then the director of the Lehár Festival, declared in an interview, "I am especially fond of this operetta with a story taking us to the United States around 1900. Franz Lehár’s name is above all associated with The Merry Widow, his great worldwide success; a year before he had already written Die Juxheirat. During his lifetime this work was performed only forty times. And we are presenting this conversation operetta in a semi-scenic performance." The conductor Markus Burkert elaborated and reconstructed this work note by note; the musicians pieced their parts together note by note. "They also take this commitment with them into the performance – and play with verve the interesting waltzes, marches, and ensemble pieces. The fact that the Franz Lehár Orchestra also produces a wonderful, transparent, and lively sound makes it the perfect ensemble for the operetta genre." (BR-Klassik Operetta Review). A bold and daring Lehár without his otherwise typical sentimentalities – and a discovery!

Mozart, W.A.: Zaide [Opera]

Leopold Kozeluch enjoyed such an outstanding reputation in 1781 that he received an offer from the Archbishop of Salzburg to succeed Mozart as court organist. Kozeluch’s piano trios must have been very popular since more than sixty of them appeared in print from 1781 to 1810. The three trios presented here were published in 1798 / 99 and had been preceded by forty other such works by him. The special feature of these three piano trios lies in his use of melodies from Scottish folk songs in their middle and last movements. Toward the end of the eighteenth century the Edinburgh publisher George Thomson had the idea to have Viennese classical composers set Scottish, Irish, and Welsh folk songs to music with an accompaniment for piano, violin, and violoncello and contacted Haydn, Kozeluch, Pleyel, and (later) Beethoven in the hope of winning them for this project. They gratefully accepted the offer and produced settings in rich supply – in Beethoven’s case alone, more than two hundred – that unfortunately are almost completely forgotten today. The works are presented here by Trio 1790, consisting of cellist and violist Imola Gombos, violinist Annette Wehnert, and pianist Harald Hoeren.