MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW Plain text for smartphones & printers

Support us financially by purchasing this from

Leo FALL (1873-1925)
Paroli or Frau Denise, comic opera in one act with dialogue (1902)
Anke Krabbe (soprano) - Denise, Andrea Bönig (alto) - Marquise von Gaillardière, Jörg Dürmüller (tenor) - Jean, Michael Roider (tenor) - Josef Drechsler, Ralf Lukas (baritone) - Marquis von Gaillardière, Henning Freiberg - narrator
WDR Rundfunkchor Köln
WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln/Axel Kober
rec. Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany, 2012
CPO 777 899-2 [51:54]

Leo Fall’s compositional period fell at the end of the Strauss-Millöcker romantic era and coincided with the advent of ‘The Musical’ genre promoted by Lehár, Jones and Porter. To my ears his style anticipates certain new musical directions that stage shows were by 1900 starting to take. Fall is best known for The Dollar Princess (1907) and Madame Pompadour (1922) (review) and the Electrola (EMI) recordings brought them to a wide audience. Fall came from a Berlin musical family where his father had been comfortably employed as a Royal Military bandmaster. Leo was sent to the Vienna Conservatoire to study composition but this he abandoned when aged nineteen and he returned to Berlin to help the family in writing opera as a lucrative, combined family effort.

Fall’s Paroli - this obscure short comic opera - is more a chamber work than an operetta. It has been little heard of so a study of this composition is made all the more interesting. On a first hearing, the music by this 29-year-old composer is not so easily assimilated as a stage show and it is only on repeat listening that one can form more definite opinions. We find that the composer has worked sensitively to provide a good opening chorus and finale with horn motif. Also notable is the strong melody in Denise’s song (No. 2), where Anke Krabbe delights with her agility and endearing timbre. Ralf Lukas makes a splendid Marquis in his duet with Denise (No. 5). These numbers are of immediate appeal. In the score there are a few instances (as in Jean and Denise’s duet) where there seems to be a lull in the compositional framework. On a closer study one realizes that such unexpected turns in the vocal line follow a change of mood described in the lyrics. That said I find that Fall’s orchestration rarely achieves anything like a multi-layered rich tutti. His harmonization is occasionally thin and the accompaniment is conveniently picked up by isolated sections of the orchestra. Axel Kober achieves a high level of success nevertheless with his conducting, and the orchestra responds energetically throughout.

The soloists are strong especially in their superbly delivered Terzette. It is difficult to single out individual singers for praise with such limited exposure on this short disc: sadly the playing time of the score’s music is limited to 43 minutes. The duets and ensembles are nicely balanced both in colour and strength. The dialogue is individually tracked and so can easily be omitted if one doesn’t understand German.

The recording balance is good and bathed in the warm acoustic of Cologne’s Philharmonie hall. The booklet notes are in German and English. It's a shame that the characters are not shown in the track-listing. It is also unfortunate that Michael Roider’s photograph is captioned with the soprano’s name.

Earlier Fall operetta issues from CPO include Der Fidele Bauer and Madame Pompadour. In recent years these have been joined by a Naxos recording of The Rose of Stambul (review review) and an Arthaus DVD of Die Dollarprinzessin (review)

Raymond J Walker
 

 

 



Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing