A rapid scan through the contents list for this packed
pair of discs will confirm a generous shovelful of old-fashioned light
classics both famous and peripheral. This repertoire reeks of the era
of 78s (in compact form many of these pieces could be squeezed onto
one or two sides of shellac) and of the occasional celebrity slum-fest
in Vienna. In fairness Boskovsky immersed himself in this music conducting
with affable brilliance both the VPO and, as here, lesser ensembles
but always with his performances defining 'echt Wienerisch'. To the
music ..... that admixture of workaday and eager brilliance.
The Suppé overtures are a strange amalgam
of Weber's effervescence and stiff-necked absurdity. Boccaccio has
some miraculously fine playing. Its writing is indebted to the Mendelssohn
Octet and to Mozart both in the spirit of Nozze and the alla
turca manner. Light Cavalry (true George Weldon and George
Hurst territory) spins together Rossinian gestures with fanfares from
Bruckner and Leonora No. 3 - a melodramatic soup! In Poet
and Peasant it is easy to trace the poet in the solo cello with
its loving sweet braggartry. After four overtures, a Von Suppé
march comes as a surprise but this one has the same Turkish paprika
as the Boccaccio overture.
Komzák wrote a waltz of sly charm in
Bad’ner Mad’ln but found an emotionally charged ripeness in Narenta.
The Komzák marches were haughty, all waxed moustaches and
tipsy; quite a contrast with the laid-back polka Das liegt bei uns
im Blut.
Johann Strauss II is represented by two overtures:
one very famous; the other obscure. Eine Nacht in Venedig here
sounds dull by contrast with the jolly Blindekuh. The Waltz Perlen
der Liebe by Josef Strauss is sly and wreathed in mercurial
charm.
Waltzes by Lanner and Millöcker
round out the collection. Of the two the Millöcker works have a
certain freshness and inspiration. While the playing is not the dernier
cri in tonal opulence it is buoyant and rhythmically lively.
Carl Ziehrer died in the 1920s, the longest
surviving of the famous nineteenth century brethren. Landstreicher
suffers from a bit of pre-echo. It is a work of hussar bustle and
some charming pin-point dancing - heel and toe. In Hoch und Nieder
the strings, never opulent in these recordings, here sound strident
although they are used cleverly by this practised conductor. Faschingskinder
is a real winner with intimate chamber textures drawn from a small ensemble
putting across a sedately rounded regal waltz. Listening to the Schönfeld
Marsch one can hear the quarry from which Sousa mined his
ideas.
Rob Barnett