Switzerland swings
Particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, and often for guests in illustrious hotels, many Swiss composers wrote piano pieces in the style of popular American dances.
The singing father Hans Georg Nägeli, born 250 years ago, made Switzerland sing. It is ironic that a CD was released on his birthday that shows a completely different picture of the Swiss musical landscape: Switzerland swings.
The fifth installment in the "20th Century Foxtrots" series features a host of rarities by twelve Swiss composers as well as the German José Berr, who lived in Zurich for many years, and the Geneva composer Marguerite Roesgen-Champion, who was more successful in Paris. The musicologist Mauro Piccinini, who is also the academic supervisor of this series, has tracked down the mostly unpublished dance pieces. He writes about how the foxtrot, which was mistaken for jazz, became established in St. Moritz hotels, for example, by means of a "Tschetzpend". In the latest episode, the pieces are also played with captivating verve and humor by Viennese pianist Gottlieb Wallisch. The booklet cover, brilliantly designed by Alastair Taylor in typical Art Deco style, shows a couple dancing in front of a snowy mountain backdrop. The CD, recorded in the SRF radio studio in Zurich and produced in Germany, also exudes an international, predominantly American flair.
Twelve premiere recordings feature fox trots and tangos by composers born between 1865 (Emile Jaques-Dalcroze) and 1941 (Urs Joseph Flury), all of whom briefly lost their hearts to jazz and American fashion dances. In addition to Arthur Honegger, Conrad Beck, Paul Burkhard, Peter Mieg and Julien-François Zbinden, this project also includes lesser-known composers such as René Gerber, Walter Lang and André-François Marescotti.
Albert Moeschinger makes a compelling start with a lot of swing and a particularly sensitive approach to jazz. Tallula is the name of his syncopated foxtrot fantasy from 1930, to which a genuine Farewell Blues follows. These two sharply profiled pieces serve as models for everything that follows. The Rheinberger pupil José Berr amuses curiously with a one-step on the Jodellied I am a Swiss boy and the Thurgau song.
20th Century Foxtrots, Vol. 5. Switzerland. Gottlieb Wallisch, piano. Grand Piano GP 922
