Kammspielwerke aus Wien und Prag: Opernmelodien

In the first two decades of 19th century Anton and Josef Olbrich in Vienna and Franz Rzebitschek in Prague started to make musical boxes. These instruments represented strong competition to the Swiss models and won prizes at national and international exhibitions. This second CD focuses on operatic melodies, encompassing operatic music from Rossini`s Il Barbiere(1816) to Verdi`s Rigoletto (1851) on instruments which cover a period of around 50 years. Italian opera dominates, beginning with Rossini. Towards the middle of the century Bellini and Donizetti took over in popularity, followed susequently by Verdi. The grand opéra also left its traces and is here represented here by melodies from Meyerbeer`s operas. Richard Wagner`s music also can be found on instruments by makers from Vienna and Prague. As with dance music, also in the operatic field, national music tendencies were part of the repertoire: Erkel`s Hunyadi László is but one example of the several tunes thar employ national musical idioms which appear frequently on musical box movements. The musical arrangement is set to achieve a easily audible melodic line and a clear accompaniment, which is of great advantage to this kind of music, where the melodic line is very often the most important part. This can be seen and heard easily in the various choruses and arias, some of them displaying rich coloratura passages and cadenzas. The recordings presented here were made with the intention of entering a new field of scientific research, preserving the favourite tunes of their time on an authentic source and allowing some insight into comtemporary perfomance practice.