20TH CENTURY FOXTROTS • 2

GERMANY

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GOTTLIEB WALLISCH

‘In the aftermath of WWI Europe was hit by a wave of new dances: foxtrots, shimmies, Bostons or Charlestons. But, in contrast to other European countries, Germany reacted in a more complex way to this culturally pervasive phenomenon. Partly because the Versailles Treatise had banned cultural goods from abroad, German composers and their audiences felt jazz as a sort of forbidden attraction, difficult if not impossible to hear in its original form until well into the late 1920s. Still, it is fascinating to see how young composers such as Hindemith, Weill and Wolpe, and also older ones, such as D'Albert and Niemann were instinctively seduced by the new rhythms and styles.

In many of these jazzy pieces I do feel truly "German" qualities: musical craftsmanship of high calibre and an earnest ambition to link traditional compositional skills with the new musical language. The results are all sweeping and unique pieces - fantastic music from a century ago that mostly went into oblivion.’ – Gottlieb Wallisch