Search - Barnabas Von Geczy :: Sag Beim Abschied Leise S

A renowned salon orchestra from the 1930s.

John Austin | Kangaroo Ground, Australia | 03/18/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Central Europe boasted a number of light music orchestras and ensembles in the years between the two world wars. Many of them were to be heard at restaurants, clubs, and dance venues in cities such as Berlin and Munich. All of them recorded oodles of music from their repertoires, music that belonged roughly in a category midway between popular and classical. Foremost among such "salon orchestras" was that of Barnabas von Geczy, a Hungarian violinist. His own violin playing, and sometimes the instruments heard in his orchestra, conveyed a suggestion of gypsy music - or what it was popularly believed to be. Many novel and original items were specially written for the Geczy orchestra. Such a one was "Puzta-Fox". Apart from that best-seller, which continues to survive in anthology CDs, most of Barnabas von Geczy's huge recording output has all but disappeared from the retail market. All the more welcome and recommended, therefore, is this budget priced CD, featuring 21 representative tracks, which was issued in Germany in 2001. All those with long memories, or those with an inclination to sample the real sound and style of European light music of the 1930s should order this CD, as I did recently. Usually dignified, sometimes punchy, always in arrangements that included no vocalist, the von Geczy inimitable "sound texture" soon becomes recognizable. Geczy's own violin playing is not perhaps the sweetest sound amongst it all."