20TH CENTURY FOXTROTS • 1
AUSTRIA AND CZECHIA
BENATZKY • BITTNER • EISLER • GROSZ • HÁBA • JEŽEK • JIRÁK • KRAUSS-ELKA
KRENEK • MARTINŮ • MITTLER • PETYREK • SCHULHOFF • WEINBERGER
GOTTLIEB WALLISCH
‘I love to discover forgotten music in libraries and music estates, and was impressed by how many distinguished "classical" composers contributed piano pieces to the Jazz- and Dance-wave of the "Roaring Twenties"! The initial idea was to record a single album with hidden gems, but because there's so much good music, the project has now expanded into a series of several albums. Of particular note are the pieces from Jonny spielt auf by Ernst Krenek and Jaroslav Ježek's Bugatti Step and Echoes of the Music Hall. Jonny was perhaps the biggest opera success of the 1920s, the role-model of the so-called "Zeitgeist-opera", and it's fantastic to revive some of its greatest tunes and hits on the piano. The Ježek pieces are perfect examples of the joie de vivre of that era, pulsating and full of pianistic energy!’ – Gottlieb Wallisch
About this Recording
Ernst
Krenek |
Julius
Bittner |
Franz
Mittler |
Wilhelm
Grosz |
Alois
Hába |
Bohuslav
Martinů |
Jaromír
Weinberger |
Erwin
Schulhoff |
During the inter-war period, in the cities of the West, a younger generation found ways to enjoy life in the form of dances such as shimmies, foxtrots, tangos and Charlestons: strong rhythms that became a symbol of a carefree and decadent era. The new jazz craze took hold everywhere, and Krenek’s opera Jonny spielt auf became an overnight sensation. The inter-war Zeitgeist in Vienna and the Czech lands is reflected in a programme full of première recordings – many of which were hits in their day – rich with fashionable dynamism, syncopation and joie de vivre.
POTPOURRI AUS DER OPER ‘JONNY SPIELT AUF’ (‘POTPOURRI FROM THE OPERA
‘JONNY STRIKES UP’), OP. 45 (1927)
(arr. Jenő Takács [1902–2005]) * (05:38)
FOXTROT AUS DER KOMISCHEN OPER
(‘THE LEAP OVER THE SHADOW –
FOXTROT FROM THE COMIC OPERA’), OP. 17 (1923) (arr. Gustav Blasser [1857–1942]) * (03:17)
(‘SHIMMY ON THE NAME BACH’) (1924) * (01:58)
THREE PIECES FROM THE BALLET ‘DIE FÜNF WÜNSCHE’ (‘THE FIVE WISHES’) (1928) * (08:49)
SHIMMY UND TANGO AUS DEM TANZSPIEL ‘BABY IN DER BAR’, OP. 23 (1925–26)
(arr. Gustav Blasser) * (06:12)
(1891–1964)
LIED AN DEN MORGENSTERN
(‘THANNHÄUSER FOXTROT. SONG TO THE MORNING STAR’), OP. 33 (c. 1921) * (02:11)
VIER TÄNZE (‘FOUR DANCES’), OP. 39 (1927) (10:36)
TWO EXCERPTS FROM ‘GROTESKE’
(from Suite for Chamber Orchestra, Op. 37) (1921; arr. for piano, 1925) * (05:55)
TOTAL TIME: 70:27
Gottlieb Wallisch
Gottlieb Wallisch has performed on stage at the world’s most prestigious concert halls and festivals: Carnegie Hall New York, Wigmore Hall in London, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Tonhalle Zurich, and the NCPA in Beijing, also the Ruhr Piano Festival, the Beethovenfest in Bonn, and the Festivals of Lucerne and Salzburg. Conductors with whom he has performed as a soloist include Sir Neville Marriner, Dennis Russell Davies, Kirill Petrenko, Martin Haselboeck and Bruno Weil. Orchestras he has performed with include the Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra Budapest and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. He has made numerous recordings for record labels, including Naxos. Gottlieb Wallisch is a Steinway Artist.
OTHER RECORDINGS OF DANCE MUSIC FOR PIANO
if you seek adventure and,
why not, a little fun?’
– Gapplegate Classical-Modern
Music Review
– American Record Guide
created by the sinuous, interweaving modes of Armenian music,
are immediately attractive.’
– Records International
