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

Listen to an excerpt from EISLER, H.: Shimmy-Tempo
Piano Recital: Wallisch, Gottlieb - KRENEK, E. / BITTNER, J. / BENATZKY, R. / MITTLER, F. / GROSZ, W. / EISLER, H. (20th Century Foxtrots, Vol. 1)
GP813

About this Recording

Ernst Krenek
Ernst
Krenek
Julius Bittner
Julius
Bittner
Franz Mittler
Franz
Mittler
Wilhelm Grosz
Wilhelm
Grosz
Alois Hába
Alois
Hába
Bohuslav Martinů
Bohuslav
Martinů
Jaromír Weinberger
Jaromír
Weinberger
Erwin Schulhoff
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.

Austria
AUSTRIA
ERNST KRENEK (1900–1991)
POTPOURRI AUS DER OPER ‘JONNY SPIELT AUF’ (‘POTPOURRI FROM THE OPERA
‘JONNY STRIKES UP’), OP. 45 (1927)
(arr. Jenő Takács [1902–2005]) * (05:38)
1
Shimmy (01:29)
2
Blues (02:38)
3
Tango (01:31)
4
DER SPRUNG ÜBER DEN SCHATTEN –
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)
JULIUS BITTNER (1874–1939)
5
SHIMMY AUF DEN NAMEN BACH
(‘SHIMMY ON THE NAME BACH’) (1924) * (01:58)
RALPH BENATZKY (1884–1957)
THREE PIECES FROM THE BALLET ‘DIE FÜNF WÜNSCHE’ (‘THE FIVE WISHES’) (1928) * (08:49)
6
Flirt. Slowfox (01:27)
7
Boston ‘L’Heure bleue’ (03:21)
8
Tango macabre (03:56)
FRANZ MITTLER (1893–1970)
9
FOOLISH SPRING (FOXTROT) (1934) * (03:42)
WILHELM GROSZ (1894–1939)
SHIMMY UND TANGO AUS DEM TANZSPIEL ‘BABY IN DER BAR’, OP. 23 (1925–26)
(arr. Gustav Blasser) * (06:12)
10
Shimmy (02:51)
11
Tango (03:19)
LEOPOLD KRAUSS-ELKA
(1891–1964)
12
THANNHÄUSER-FOXTROT.
LIED AN DEN MORGENSTERN
(‘THANNHÄUSER FOXTROT. SONG TO THE MORNING STAR’), OP. 33 (c. 1921) * (02:11)
HANNS EISLER (1898–1962)
13
SHYMMY-TEMPO (1926) * (00:59)
FELIX PETYREK (1892–1951)
14
ILLUSION. FOXTROT (1922) * (03:24)
15
ARIZONA-FOXTROT (1924) * (01:54)
Czechia
CZECHIA
JAROSLAV JEŽEK (1906–1942)
16
BUGATTI STEP (1931) (02:58)
17
OZVĚNY Z MUSIC-HALLU (‘ECHOES OF THE MUSIC HALL’) (FOXTROT) (1936) * (01:59)
ALOIS HÁBA (1893–1973)
VIER TÄNZE (‘FOUR DANCES’), OP. 39 (1927) (10:36)
18
Shimmy-Blues (02:02)
19
Blues (03:14)
20
Boston (03:01)
21
Tango (02:12)
BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ (1890–1959)
22
FOXTROT, H. 126bis (1920) (02:35)
23
ONE-STEP, H. 127bis (1921) * (01:26)
24
BLACK BOTTOM, H. 165 (1927) (00:53)
KAREL BOLESLAV JIRÁK (1891–1972)
25
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN – SLOW-FOX (BLUES) (1929) * (03:30)
JAROMÍR WEINBERGER (1896–1967)
26
CITY SHIMMY (from the incidental music for Matěj Poctivý) (1922) * (01:52)
ERWIN SCHULHOFF (1894–1942)
TWO EXCERPTS FROM ‘GROTESKE’
(from Suite for Chamber Orchestra, Op. 37) (1921; arr. for piano, 1925) * (05:55)
27
Valse boston (03:30)
28
Shimmy-Fox (02:23)
* WORLD PREMIÈRE RECORDING

TOTAL TIME: 70:27

Gottlieb Wallisch

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.

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