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German: Merrie England Suite & More / Leaper, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Naxos · Aug 2022CD$19.99 -
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SalePfitzner: Symphony in C - Schumann: Konzertstuck for 4 Horns / Schwarz, Seattle Symphony
Naxos · Sep 2012CD$19.99$9.99 -
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![Gluck: Orpheus und Eurydike - A Dance Opera by Pina Bausch [Blu-ray]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1600260.jpg?v=1786839059&width=800)
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![Gluck: Orpheus und Eurydike - A Dance Opera by Pina Bausch [Blu-ray]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/81wCQzQ_FfL_47a02ac8-ecef-4f6c-af36-488caedcc485.jpg?v=1786839059&width=800)
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![Gluck: Orpheus und Eurydike - A Dance Opera by Pina Bausch [Blu-ray]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1600260.jpg?v=1786839059&width=400)
Gluck: Orpheus und Eurydike - A Dance Opera by Pina Bausch [Blu-ray]
BelAir Classiques · Jan 2010Blu-Ray$36.99 -
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Tchaikovsky Overtures (Ballet in three parts)
Bayerische Staatsoper Recording · Sep 2025Blu-Ray$36.99 -
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Scarlatti: Sonaten pour le clavecin Vol 1 / Andreas Staier
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi · Jun 2008CD$17.99 -
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![Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker / San Francisco Ballet [Blu-ray]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1579901.jpg?v=1789329158&width=800)
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![Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker / San Francisco Ballet [Blu-ray]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/516-f6fFv8L.jpg?v=1789329158&width=800)
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![Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker / San Francisco Ballet [Blu-ray]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1579901.jpg?v=1789329158&width=400)
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German: Merrie England Suite & More / Leaper, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Acknowledged by Sir Arthur Sullivan as his musical heir, Edward German enjoyed huge acclaim during his lifetime. His dances are ‘charged with the fragrant essence of the greenwood’ and the Overture to Nell Gwyn, with its richly English themes, explains Elgar’s liking for German’s music. The gloriously romanticized Gipsy Suite pays subtle homage to Dvořák; the dances from Henry VIII were responsible for his early celebrity; and Tom Jones (on 8.660270-71) and Merrie England were two of his greatest stage successes. Conductor Adrian Leaper is a prominent conductor in Naxos’ roster and in addition to those light music discs he has also recorded formidable recordings of Elgar and Wieniawski (8.572952), and Havergal Brian (8.572014), among many others.
Weiss: Sonatas / Wolfgang Rübsam
Silvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750) was a German composer and arguably the master lutenist of the 18th century. In addition to being one of the greatest players of all time, he was one of the most important and most prolific composers of lute music in history. He wrote around 600 pieces for lute, most of them grouped into ‘sonatas’ (not to be confused with the later classical sonata, based on sonata form) or suites, consisting mostly of Baroque dance movements. This recital features some of Weiss’s sonatas (he called them ‘Suonate’) for solo lute. They have come down to us in a variety of tablature manuscripts, and many are missing their preludes, which were usually improvised. Weiss’s music is characterised by a unique understanding of the capabilities of his instrument, its strengths and its weaknesses. Like J.S. Bach’s, his music represents the culmination of a high Baroque style a little at odds with the more progressive aspirations of his younger contemporaries. The cantabile style of playing heard in these marvellous performances is directly inspired by the instrument, a lute-harpsichord built for Mr. Rübsam in 2015 by the acclaimed American instrument-maker Keith Hill. It consists of one manual with one set of gut strings at eight-foot pitch, and two sets of jacks which pluck the strings in two different places. One, positioned farther from the nut, produces a flutey sound, and the other, closer to the nut, produces a more nasal timbre. A second set of strings, made of brass at four-foot pitch, produces a halo-effect by resonating with the eight-foot register played by the performer. It gives the rather dry sound of the gut strings a much more singing quality of tone.
Ewig dein Mozart lieder und briefe eines komponisten
VIOLIN SONATAS
WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF AMANDA MAIER
Traditional Music from Turkey
Brahms: Ungarische Tanze
Buxtehude: Trio Sonatas, Op. 1 & 2
Pfitzner: Symphony in C - Schumann: Konzertstuck for 4 Horns / Schwarz, Seattle Symphony
The musical expression of German Romanticism is the theme of this disc. The trajectory of Schumann’s Konzertstück, Op 86, written for four horns and orchestra, goes from heroism to introspection. Two of his Symphonic Etudes, Op 13, were orchestrated by no less a figure than Tchaikovsky, while Albert Parlow orchestrated four of Brahms’ most exciting Hungarian Dances. Mendelsssohn’s Overture to his Ballad Opera Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde (Song and Stranger) embodies classical virtues. Anton Webern’s Langsamer Satz for string quartet has been vibrantly orchestrated by Gerard Schwarz. Hans Pfitzner, one of the last representatives of the movement, is represented by his concise, melodic Symphony in C major.
The Wild Sound of the '20s - 1923
October 29, 1923 - a date steeped in history. In the midst of a year of political and economic crisis, the age of public radio in Germany was ushered in with the first broadcast of the "Berliner Funkstunde", from the attic of an office building on Potsdamer Platz. The composers assembled on this album not only profited from these developments, but also, in part, actively shaped them.
The composer Ernst Toch experienced the crisis year of 1923 in Mannheim, where his "Dance Suite" op. 30 was premiered on with great success. In this work, Toch was able to realize his interest in cross-disciplinary collaboration and new forms of expression. His imaginative use of instruments is one of the most fascinating aspects of the suite.
The "Frauentanz" for soprano, flute, viola, clarinet, horn and bassoon op. 10 by Kurt Weill, written in the summer of 1923, reflects the interest in chamber music line-ups typical of the time. The decisive factor was not only a new ideal of sound and expression, but also the experience that in times of crisis, pieces with small ensembles had better chances of being performed.
Ernst Krenek had found essential impulses for his work in Berlin; when the crisis came to a head in the summer of 1923 he composed the "Three Mixed Choirs" a cappella op. 22 on poems by Matthias Claudius. Krenek designed these folksong-like works written by a lyricist from the epoch of Empfindsamkeit as parables.
For the festive concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the unification of the cities of Buda and Pest to form the capital and residence city of Budapest in the autumn of 1923, Béla Bartók created his "Dance Suite" for orchestra - a "rather touchy issue", as the internationalist-minded composer explained in a private note.
REVIEWS:
Given [the events of 1923 in central Europe], you might imagine a CD of mostly German music entitled 1923: Wild Sound of the 1920s might sound a bit, well, wild. Far from it. If anything, it shows the opposite: surrounded by violence and the threat of chaos, the four composers represented here by works they composed in 1923 responded by raising their art to the nth degree of refinement and subtlety. Take Ernst Krenek, a composer who nowadays is remembered for a smash hit opera about a Black jazz musician, and for writing later in life some of the most fearsomely intellectualized, complex works in the entire history of music. He’s represented on this disc by three settings for choir of the 18th-century poet Matthias Claudius, of a ravishing otherworldly beauty caught to perfection in these performances.
Kurt Weill, known to the world for his bitingly satirical music dramas, appears as the composer of seven exquisitely allusive, bittersweet songs based on medieval German poems. Ernst Toch’s Dance Suite is a brilliantly imagined set of six “character” pieces for just a handful of instruments, with titles like The Red Whirling Dance and Idyll. Standing somewhat to one side of all this German romantic/modernist intensity and compression is the Dance Suite by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, with its rumbustious evocations of Balkan and North African Music.
The occasional whiff of expressionist harshness or a gently satirical distortion of a waltz shows these composers were not completely cocooned in their composing studios. They were alert to the jarring, shifting currents outside. But what the CD reveals most strongly is how much these composers were focused on their own internal, imaginative world – and how much they cared about craftsmanship. Every bar in all four pieces is exquisitely made, and that quality is caught in the performances, which are all of enormous refinement.
-- The Telegraph
The year 1923 was a year of crisis in Germany; inflation was heating up and far right-wing parties were jockeying for power. In October, the first broadcast of public radio in Germany took place from the “Berliner Funkstunde” station on Potsdamer Platz. This provocative new disc from the Choir and Symphony of Bavarian Radio includes four works written a hundred years ago by a group of innovative composers who all made use of the new, disruptive technology of radio.
Kurt Weill’s Frauentanz is a suite of seven medieval songs, scored for soprano, flute, viola, clarinet, horn and bassoon. Weill helped to create the familiar soundtrack for Weimar Berlin, and this performance by Anna-Maria Palii and the fine instrumentalists of the Bayerischen Rundfunks orchestra provides the authentic feel of a society that was becoming increasingly decadent and hysterical in 1923 and beyond.
Ernst Toch’s Dance Suite is another clever and imaginative piece with interesting orchestration: flute, clarinet, violin, viola, double bass and percussion. The Berlin sound is also evident here, something a bit harsh and raw, in contrast with the softer-focused, more lyrical and pastoral modernism of Paris.
The Ernst Krenek work is a bit of a surprise: his 3 Choruses for a cappella choir . The ‘antique’ sound of these pieces remind me of two of my favorite works: Vaughan Williams’ G minor Mass, from 1921, and Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Missa São Sebastião, from 1937. All three provide old wine in new bottles: ancient cadences with a modernist twist.
The final work on the disc is probably the best known: Bela Bartok’s Dance Suite for Orchestra. This is an orchestral showpiece, a kind of try-out for his Concerto for Orchestra written more than two decades later. Both pieces treat orchestral instruments in a solistic, virtuosic way. The source material might be folkloric, but this is definitely written in a modernist idiom.
Inflation, far right-wing agitation, disruptive technology: yes, we’re talking about 1923, not 2023. And the music on this disc is as fresh and forward-looking as some of the best music written today.
-- Music for Several Instruments (Dean Frey)
![Gluck: Orpheus und Eurydike - A Dance Opera by Pina Bausch [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1600260.jpg?v=1786839059&width=800)
![Gluck: Orpheus und Eurydike - A Dance Opera by Pina Bausch [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/81wCQzQ_FfL_47a02ac8-ecef-4f6c-af36-488caedcc485.jpg?v=1786839059&width=800)
Gluck: Orpheus und Eurydike - A Dance Opera by Pina Bausch [Blu-ray]
Choreography and stage direction by Pina Bausch.
Dancers: Yann Bridard (Orpheus), Marie-Agnes Gillot (Eurydike), Miteki Kudo (Amor), Ballet de l'Opera national de Paris.
Duration: 104 minutes
Image: 16:9 HD
Sound: PCM Stereo, DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles: French, German, English, Spanish, Italian
Region: All
![Gluck: Orpheus und Eurydike - A Dance Opera by Pina Bausch [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1600260.jpg?v=1786839059&width=400)
Music in Germany from Schutz to Bach / Lejeune
Bilse: Waltzes, Marches, Polkas / Simonis, Cologne West German Radio SO
BILSE Sturmmarsch Galopp. Baumgartenallee Polka. Marienwalzer. Nur mit Dir. Schlesische Lieder. Catharina Quadrille. Die Fürstensteiner. Mit Bomben und Granaten. Winterflocken Galopp. Victoria Walzer. Königspolonaise. Die Provinzialen. Concerthaus Polka. Schützenmarsch • Christian Simonis, cond; Cologne West German RSO • cpo 777 341 (72:10)
You’ve got to hand it to cpo. I don’t know where they come up with these obscure Romantic composers, but here’s another one. The long-lived, Silesian-born Benjamin Bilse (1816–1902) was known in his time interchangeably as the “Hungarian Strauss,” the “Bohemian Strauss,” and the “Danish Strauss.” A native of Liegnitz, Bilse became steeped in the folk music of Poland and Silesia, founding the Bilse Orchestra in 1842. As was not uncommon for small-town musicians of the time, Bilse was proficient on many instruments and pretty much taught himself composition by studying and conducting the works of contemporaries and peers.
If the foregoing paints Bilse as a provincial, backcountry bandleader, the impression is a false one. By the 1860s, we find him in Berlin, a highly popular composer and presenter of public concerts, an important impresario of musical events, and a hardworking organizer of music societies and organizations. He is even credited with having played a significant role in the establishment of the Berlin Philharmonic.
As a composer, Bilse’s ambitions seemed to be more modest. Like the Danish waltz king, Christian Lumbye, the Austrian Joseph Lanner, the French Waldteufel, and the Austrian Strauss clan, Bilse contented himself with writing waltzes, polkas, and marches for the entertainment of mass audiences. And while such works may have been aimed at satisfying popular tastes, they were superbly crafted—some of them miniature masterpieces—and the ensembles assembled to perform them were of the highest professional caliber.
This is feel-good music. If you love a good John Philip Sousa march, you will joyously feather-dust your furniture to Bilse’s Mit Bomben und Granaten (“With Bombs and Grenades”) and Swiffer your floors to the Sturmmarsch Galopp . My sense is that unlike the waltzes of Johann Strauss II, Bilse’s waltz and polka numbers, such as the Victoria Walzer and the Concert House Polka , were less intended to be actually danced to than they were intended to be listened to as stylized, self-sustaining concert pieces. Of their type, these are masterfully written works, highly polished, handsomely scored with an ear for instrumental color, and tremendously engaging.
Based on the milieu of composers to which Bilse belonged and the musical genre to which he contributed, you will know whether this sort of thing appeals to you or not. If so, I can tell you that the performances and the recording are top drawer, and I, personally, haven’t had so much plain old fun listening to a CD in quite some time. Strongly recommended.
FANFARE: Jerry Dubins
Scheidemann: Organ Works, Vol. 6 / Julia Brown
Heinrich Scheidemann flourished as a key figure in the development of keyboard music amidst the Hanseatic prosperity of 17th-century Hamburg and the luxurious tonal qualities of Northern European organ playing. This programme includes early works reflecting the influence of Scheidemann’s teacher Sweelinck as well as fashionable dances, and is crowned with majestic transcriptions and variations on secular and Lutheran vocal music. Julia Brown’s many Naxos recordings include Vols 3–5 and the forthcoming final Vol 7 of Scheidemann’s organ works. MusicWeb International described Vol 5 (8.557054) as “wonderful music…compellingly played.”
Telemann: Darmstadt Overtures (Suites) / Müller-brühl, Köln
Although the coming "Bach Year" has many labels and listeners focused on the formidable legacy of Johann Sebastian, perhaps we also should take this time to more actively explore the work of a contemporary who not only was a friend (he was godfather to Bach's son, C.P.E.), but whose music was specifically admired by J.S. and even had some measure of influence in Bach's own work. Georg Philipp Telemann not only was prolific, he wrote for nearly every musical genre, from instrumental concertos and orchestral pieces to solo keyboard and vocal works to cantatas and oratorios to opera. He wrote a really terrific set of 12 solo violin Fantaisies--nowhere near the monumental masterpieces of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas, but skillfully written and eminently engaging--that were virtually ignored by major violinists until Andrew Manze's superb recording on Harmonia Mundi a few years ago. And now we have this outstanding recording of Overtures--which essentially are orchestral suites à la Handel or Bach--that immediately will convince any doubters and please those who already know that Telemann was a master composer of the first rank. This is music you can listen to over and over without the slightest shadowy intrusion of boredom. It's almost as if Telemann consciously incorporated the best of French, Italian, and German styles into one, not forgetting to include the stately gait and elegant melodic character of Handelian dance in some of the movements. And as good as the music is, the playing on this CD is as good as it gets. Although the instruments are modern, the playing style is as articulate, clean, and detailed as that of the best period orchestras. The bassoon and oboe soloists deserve special praise. [12/10/1999] --David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com
1929 - Tempo, Tanz und Technik / Theis, Munich Radio Orchestra
October 29, 1923 was a date steeped in history. In the middle of a year of political and economic crises, the age of public radio in Germany was ushered in with the first broadcast of the "Berliner Funkstunde" (Berlin Radio Hour) from the attic of an office building on Potsdamer Platz. Radio offered entirely new possibilities for the production and reception of music. The two compositions on this CD not only benefited from these developments but also played an active role in shaping them.
Eduard Künneke's five-movement Concerto grosso "Tänzerische Suite" op. 26 for jazz band and large orchestra corresponded to modern dances: the Overture is a Foxtrot, the Andante a Blues, the Intermezzo a Tango, the valse mélancolique a Boston Waltz, and the Finale a Foxtrot again. The suite was celebrated as a milestone in contemporary radio music and soon became part of the regular concert program.
Hanns Eisler's cantata "Tempo der Zeit" (Tempo of the Times) op. 16 for soloists, narrator, choir, winds, and percussion was written in 1929. The libretto was written by the popular lyricist Robert Gilbert, under the pseudonym of David Weber. With its pure wind ensemble and percussion, "Tempo der Zeit" captures the typical Songspiel sound of the time. The fact that Eisler used the "modern" medium of radio, of all things, to get his fundamental criticism of blind enthusiasm for technology across to the people is an ironical aspect of the work’s composition and reception history. This CD is part of the special programme focus on the topic "The Wild Sound of the Twenties".
Jensen: Piano Music, Vol. 1
Tchaikovsky Overtures (Ballet in three parts)
DANCE
Scarlatti: Sonaten pour le clavecin Vol 1 / Andreas Staier
All these facets are zestfully displayed on this stimulating disc. Apart from genuine Spanish dances—the bulerias of Kk492, the peteneras of 502 and the Andalusian 519 which bubbles from minor to major—there are impressions of street processions (490, 491 with unmistakable sounds of trumpets, horns and drums, and a marching element in 518) and the exciting rattle of castanets or tambourines in the rapid note-reiterations of 141, 119 and 455, and Scarlatti's unique telescoped chords (490 and the even more dissonant 119). His unexpected modulations and side-stepping key-changes are to be heard in several sonatas, and his stamping basses in 502 and 517. And besides the hurtling arpeggios or broken-chord patterns (141, 454) and chains of trills (118, 501) there are the Scarlattian quirks such as the out-of-step octave unisons in 203 or the surprise changes of metre in 502. It is a pity we can't see Staier performing the vertiginous cross-hand leaps in the remarkable 108, as well as in 118 and the exuberant 119, but the sheer breakneck speed at which he plays 517, shooting off like an arrow from a bow, will leave listeners breathless.
He uses a harpsichord of German type with the G in alt called for in 454, 455 and 502, makes a few logically defensible registration changes in some sonatas, and adds occasional discreet ornamentation on repeats (which are fully observed except in five cases). This is a most enjoyable disc, which I would recommend very highly: there are many recordings of Scarlatti, but this is among the best.
-- Lionel Salter, Gramophone [2/1992]
Unendliche Liebe
![Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker / San Francisco Ballet [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1579901.jpg?v=1789329158&width=800)
![Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker / San Francisco Ballet [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/516-f6fFv8L.jpg?v=1789329158&width=800)
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker / San Francisco Ballet [Blu-ray]
Also available on standard DVD
Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
NUTCRACKER
(Blu-ray Disc Version)
Uncle Drosselmeyer – Damian Smith
Clara – Elizabeth Powell
The Nutcracker Prince – Davit Karapetyan
King of the Mice – David Arce
Queen of Snow – Yuan-yuan Tan
King of Snow – Pierre-François Vilanoba
Sugar Plum Fairy – Vanessa Zahorian
San Francisco Ballet
San Francisco Ballet Orchestra
Martin West, conductor
Helgi Tomasson, choreographer
Recorded live at the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, California, on 19 and 20 December 2007.
Bonus:
- Illustrated synopsis and cast gallery
- Interviews with Helgi Tomasson, Michael Yeargan and Martin Pakledinaz
- Documentary: 1915 World's Fair
Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: 2.0 and 5.0 PCM
Region code: 0 (all regions)
Menu languages: English
Subtitles (extras only): German, French, Spanish, Italian
Running time: 133 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 50)
R E V I E W:
TCHAIKOVSKY Nutcracker & • Martin West, cond; Damian Smith ( Drosselmeyer ); Elizabeth Powell ( Clara ); Davit Karapetyan ( Nutcracker ); David Arce ( Mouse King ); Yuan Yuan Tan ( Snow Queen ); Pierre-François Vilanoba ( Snow King ); Vanessa Zahorian ( Sugar Plum Fairy ); Maria Kochetkova ( Grand pas de deux ); San Francisco Ballet O • BBC/OPUS ARTE BD7044D (Blu-ray: 132: 00) Live: San Francisco 12/19–20/2007
& Illustrated synopsis, cast gallery, artist interviews, documentary on 1915 World’s Fair
David L. Kirk gave the DVD release of this production a thorough review in Fanfare 32:5, rightly declaring this to be “a first-class production with brilliant dancing, imaginative special effects, colorful costumes, and attractive scenery,” and numbering it among his three preferred video Nutcrackers . I second that notion.
In order for the San Francisco Ballet to take possession of this ubiquitous classic, choreographer Helgi Tomasson and his superb design team moved the action to San Francisco in 1915, the year the city hosted the World’s Fair. What this means in practical terms is that the women’s costumes in the first act are much slimmer and more dance-worthy than when the ballet is set in its original, earlier period, and that the action in the second act takes place in what seems to be a fairy-infested World’s Fair exhibition hall. As fine as the dancing is (from soloists and corps alike), it’s really the costumes of Martin Pakledinaz (including a Ballets Russes touch in the act II getups) and the scenic design of Michael Yeargan that make this production so vivid.
Now, it must be said that Tomasson’s choreography doesn’t entail much deep psychology (aside from establishing some motifs that really pull the developments in act I together). There’s nothing at all sinister about Drosselmeyer, who here is just an odd toymaker who likes to entertain kids with magic tricks (and serves as Clara’s chaperone through act II). There are no psychosexual shenanigans involving Clara and the Nutcracker, and despite the 1915 setting, the battle with the mice follows the conventions of 18th-century warfare, with nary a sniff of the trench or mustard gas.
Conductor Martin West’s work with the company orchestra is good, although the conducting and playing tend to lose focus in low-key numbers like the Arabian Dance. The best musical contribution to a video Nutcracker I know is Charles Mackerras’s account for the Pacific Northwest Ballet production, with its pointed rhythms and intense yearning. You can obtain the audio alone from Telarc.
The extra features here are truly interesting, not just filler. The audio is PCM only (choice of two or five channels), and the 16:9 picture is derived from a film transfer of multicamera video. There are a couple of sloppy little video edits that probably occurred when the show was being rushed onto PBS a couple of years ago, and should have been corrected before the home-video release, but they’ll slip by most viewers.
This endearing production deserves to be a basic Nutcracker for every household.
FANFARE: James Reel
![Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker / San Francisco Ballet [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1579901.jpg?v=1789329158&width=400)
Kálmán: Der Zigeunerprimas / Flor, Lienbacher, Rossmanith
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
