Search - Franz Lehar, Michail Jurowski, Berlin Symphony Orchestra :: Overtures & Waltzes

The Last of the Great Viennese Waltz Composers

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 09/12/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Lehar is best known, of course, for 'The Merry Widow' (of which, by the way, I just reviewed a terrific San Francisco Opera DVD a few days ago) and certainly he was the last of the truly talented composers of Viennese operettas. This cpo disc contains some of his most delectable orchestral music. I spent part of the time waltzing my wife around our listening room. We couldn't help ourselves.The disc starts with an overture to 'Merry Widow' that is not usually played before the operetta. It was not part of the original score, but was composed by Lehar for the 1940 Salzburg Festival--long after the operetta's premiere in 1905--and rather than being the usual potpourri of 'hits' it is a multi-layered, contrapuntal overture rather like something by Richard Strauss. I guess Lehar was trying to show that he could compose like the big boys. In any event, it contains all the usual suspects including a passage that combines the 'big' waltz, "Schweigen lippen, 's fluestern die Geigen" with the 'Vilja-Lied.' Neat.There are a couple of potpourri overtures included here, those from 'Clo-Clo' and 'Der Goettergatte,' neither of them well-known, but both delightful. Also included is the familiar 'Altwiener Liebeswalzer' (sometimes known as 'Wiener Lebenslust'). I had never heard the Boston waltz, 'Wilde Rosen.' I was charmed by its esprit and was glad that Michail Jurowski was able to get his Berlin orchestra to inject that echt-Viennese lift into the waltz rhythm. In previous recordings Jurowski has sometimes been a bit stolid but he manages real lightness here. Frankly, I might have preferred to have these selections conducted by one of my favorite German conductors, Klauspeter Seibel, who has indeed recorded a terrific companion disc on cpo that contains some of Lehar's more serious orchestral music, including his wonderful violin concertino. But Jurowski does himself proud and I can heartily recommend this disc. There is a somewhat short timing on this CD: 51:09. I'd suggest you get it and program your CD-player to repeat 'Wilde Rosen' and 'Altwiener Liebeswalzer' a couple of times to make up for it. Scott Morrison"