COMPOSERS: Lehar
LABELS: Beulah
WORKS: Orchestral operetta
PERFORMER: excerpts Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra
CATALOGUE NO: 1PD 16 ADD mono
FRANZ LEHÁR will doubtless have heard most of these artists in the theatre; but then he had himself collaborated with some of the greatest singers of the period, most notably Richard Tauber, whose memory he honoured with a special concert in 1948.
A year earlier, Lehár had been busy recording orchestral extracts from his operettas with the Zürich Tonhalle, an orchestra which, although hardly as polished as it has since become under David Zinman, plays with warmth and commitment – especially in a benchmark account of Gold and Silver. There’s also music from The Count of Luxembourg, Gipsy Love, Eva, The Land of Smiles and The Merry Widow, plus an Overture, Wiener Frauen, which, from 6:37 mins, transforms into a sort of kitsch rhapsody for piano and orchestra, though the excellent soloist isn’t named.