Champagne!
The Sound of Lumbye and His Idols
Concerto Copenhagen/Lars Ulrik Mortensen
rec. 2022, Dronningesalen, Den Sorte Diamant (The Black Diamond), Copenhagen
Reviewed as download from press preview
Dacapo 8.224750 [65]
Danish composer Hans Christian Lumbye became enormously popular in the middle of the 19th century for his waltzes, galops, polkas and other popular dances. He was inspired by compositions by Johann Strauss I and was called “The Nordic Strauss”. His fame also spread to other countries, not only in the Nordic hemisphere, and Strauss himself applauded him when he made guest appearances in Vienna. His Champagne Galop is still frequently played in light music concerts and through the years his music has been recorded by various orchestras. The most ambitious project is the series started in the 1990s by Marco Polo in cooperation with Dacapo. The latest issue in my collection is volume 11, recorded in 2003. It was supposed to be the complete recordings, though I haven’t checked if it reached all the way. Anyway, it is a grand effort even so, and recorded with the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra in the Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen, where Lumbye and his orchestra were frequent, sometimes even permanent guests, it is as authoritative as possible a tribute to Lumbye.
However, from a strict historical perspective they are not quite authentic. These modern recordings are played by a full symphony orchestra, while Lumbye’s own orchestra was a much smaller band, numbering 33 players at the most with a small body of strings matching an ordinary groups of wind instruments. The balance between the two groups differs greatly from the full size orchestra’s ocean of strings. Therefore, music historian Henrik Engelbrecht was interested in what Lumbye’s music sounded like 170 years ago. He approached Concerto Copenhagen and their leader Lars Ulrik Mortensen, a group specialising in baroque music. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, when suddenly there were no concerts, no cultural life going on, they were suddenly available for an experiment. They could spend time on research which brought forth information about what types of instruments were used by Lumbye’s musicians and a lot more, which is described in the liner notes. They settled for an orchestra size consisting of a string section of 3-2-2-2-2, along with 13 wind players and the many percussion instruments that are characteristic of Lumbye’s music. Without knowing the exact pitch among the musicians in Copenhagen in the 1840s, they decided on A = 430Hz as a reasonable compromise. This meant that some of the wind instruments had to be adapted and fine-tuned. In the booklet there is also a list of wind and percussion instruments used on this recording. Just one minor detail to show their scrupulousness: the champagne cork ‘pop’ is a copy of Tivoli’s old ‘pop’ originating from Tivoli’s Promenade Orchestra! It is no exaggeration to say that the HIP-movement has advanced into the 19th century.
The resulting sound is in many ways a revelation. The strings are leaner, less plushy, the woodwind instruments possibly warmer in tone, while the brass rings out with admirable clarity. And the playing is superb.
The programme is interesting and unhackneyed. The opening number, the immortal Champagne Galop, evokes memories of many a New Year’s Eve and the cork ‘pops’ promise bubbles of the same quantity as on the cover photo – but more sparkling – and the forty more strings of the full-size symphony orchestra are not missed.
The rest of the programme, after this festive beginning, is adventurous with no less than four world premieres, and the first comes immediately after the champagne. It is a beautiful Andante cantabile, played by a solo French horn, followed by a lively, intensely rhythmical Tarantella, maybe overlong but infectious.
Then follows two pieces by Lumbye’s models, the rivalling Joseph Lanner and Johann Strauss I. They were only a few years older than Lumbye but early starters. Lanner’s waltz Die Mozartisten, composed almost simultaneously as Lumbye’s Andante cantabile, is interesting insofar as Lanner borrows two themes from Mozart. First, after the highly dramatic opening the lyrical and mild March of the Priests, that opens the second act of Die Zauberflöte, and then, when the waltz proper begins, the duet La ci darem la mano from Don Giovanni. And why not? With some goodwill it is no problem to enjoy that melody in waltz tempo. Lanner explicitly wrote on the title page of the sheet music that it was a ‘waltz after Mozartian melodies, not for dancing, but rather dedicated to admirers of the immortal master’. Johann Strauss I offers an early composition, Champagner-Walzer, Op 14 written by a 24-year-old Strauss. It is light and elegant and one can feel the champagne bubbles here too: a couple of times the orchestra burst into community singing, having possibly had a sip or two from the newly-opened bottle.
The rest of the show is Lumbye’s. A champagne cork popping and a cuckoo calling out tells us that the Old Gods will be celebrated at an out-door party at the Tivoli Island – and a real all-night party it turns out to be, ending with a real bang. The never before recorded Silver Wedding Waltz is a more peaceful matter. It was written in 1840 to celebrate the Silver Wedding of King Christian VIII and Queen Caroline Amalie, and Lumbye also weaves in the Royal tune ‘King Christian Stood by the Lofty Mast’ in the composition.
A first recording also is Bellman’s Feast on Djurgården. Bellman was a Swedish singer/songwriter in the 18th century and is regarded as an unofficial poet laurate. He wasn’t a composer in the conventional sense of the word, since most of his melodies were ‘borrowed’ from various operas and operettas and adapted to suit his needs. To him, it was the texts that were essential, but many of his melodies are still well-known and performed, even as purely instrumental pieces. Here Lumbye has picked eight and put them together, delicately orchestrated, as a suite or potpourri. Highly entertaining. Figaro was a magazine writing about French fashion and the editor sometimes arranged parties at the King’s Garden. Lumbye provided the music entertainment and once also wrote a particular Figaro Waltz, where he opened with a quotation from Figaro’s Factotum aria from Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. The concluding Tivoli Bazaar Tsching-Tsching Polka is one of many pieces Lumbye wrote, named for the various attractions at Tivoli. It brings this programme to a spectacular full stop with a cymbal clash that lingers for several seconds after the other instruments have stopped.
Altogether this is a greatly entertaining and historically interesting tribute to Lumbye and his contemporaries, played with precision and admirable elan.
Göran Forsling
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Contents
Hans Christian Lumbye (1810–1870)
1 Champagne Galop, Op 14 (1845) 2:20
2 Andante cantabile e Tarantella* (1843) 8:50
Joseph Lanner (1801–1843)
3 Die Mozartisten, Walzer, Op 196 (1842) 12:26
Johann Strauss I (1804–1849)
4 Champagner-Walzer, Op 14 (1828) 6:07
H.C. Lumbye
5 Ekko fra de gamle guder på Tivoliøen, galop
(Echo from the Old Gods at Tivoli Island, Galop) (1844) 5:02
6 Sølvbryllupsvals (Silver Wedding Waltz)* (1840) 12:25
7 Bellmans fest på Djurgården (Bellman’s Feast on Djurgården)* (1844) 8:41
8 Figaro Vals (Figaro Waltz)* (1841) 6:07
9 Tivoli Bazaar Tsching-Tsching Polka (1843) 3:10
* World Premiere Recording
