Release Date: 04 January 2004
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313209828
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: BAYER
Description
Josef Bayer (1852-1913):Die Puppenfee • Sonne und ErdeOpera house musicians have often found playing forballet performances something of a chore. It wascertainly so for Austrian symphonic composer FranzSchmidt (1874-1939), when in 1896 he became a cellistwith the Vienna Court Opera orchestra. He delighted inplaying in orchestral concerts of the ViennaPhilharmonic, and for operas under such conductors asWilhelm Jahn and Hans Richter. He was scathing,however, about his experience of playing under CourtBallet Director, Josef Bayer: \I liken him, in order not toinsult this rank, to an Austrian regimental musicsergeant only in so far as he possessed the arrogance andcoarseness of one in richest measure. His ability asconductor and musician, however, would not havesatisfied the needs of the post of regimental musicsergeant by a long way. He was beneath all criticism andwas further devalued by the pitifulness and vulgarity ofhis compositions.Yet, in his line, Josef Bayer was a master of his craftand for thirty years was musical head of ballet inVienna. Born there on 6th March 1852, he studied at theVienna Conservatory under Josef Hellmesberger senior(1828-93), Anton Bruckner (1824-96) and Otto Dessoff(1835-92) and was from 1870 until 1898 a violinist inthe Court Opera Orchestra. The peak of his career wasthose thirty years in charge of ballet there from 1883until his death in Vienna on 12th March 1913. Duringthat time he composed over twenty one-act ballets, manyother dance scenes and divertissements, and numerousoperettas and light music for other venues.Perhaps by the time Franz Schmidt joined the CourtOpera orchestra, Bayer's inspiration was running a littledry. Certainly his greatest successes came in earlieryears. The first was in January 1885 with the balletWiener Walzer (Viennese Waltzes), which portrayed theevolution of the Viennese waltz over the previouscentury, with favourite melodies woven into the score.Its considerable success was overshadowed in 1888,however, by what was to prove the Vienna CourtOpera's greatest ballet creation ever. Originally entitledIm Puppenladen (In the Doll Shop), it finally came to beknown as Die Puppenfee (The Fairy Doll) after itscentral role. It became the most overwhelminglysuccessful ballet of its time in Vienna, and in all wasperformed on over a hundred European stages. To thisday it holds a place in the schedules of the Vienna StateOpera (successor of the Court Opera), having beenperformed there over eight hundred times in total.Bayer consolidated his reputation with further balletscores without ever quite achieving the same acclaimagain. Still in 1888, Osterreichische Marsche (AustrianMarches), a ballet after the manner of Wiener Walzer,was staged in Prague. Then, a year later, the ViennaCourt Opera staged another one-act ballet, Sonne undErde (Sun and Earth). Among later ballet scores wasRund um Wien (Around Vienna), produced at the CourtOpera in October 1894 to celebrate the golden jubilee ofthe Walt
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
