Gounod, Charles (& Miroslaw Koennemann, Jacques Offenbach, Konradin Kreutzer, Jean-Baptiste Arban, Johann Strauss II): Gruß aus Baden-Baden!
CDS 1062-2 Miloslaw Koennemann (1826-1890): Der Fremersberg (1853); Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880): La Princesse de Trébizonde – overture (1869); Konradin Kreutzer (1780-1849): Das Nachtlager von Grenada – overture (1834); Jean-Baptiste Arben (1825-1889); Fantasie and Variations on Carnival of Venice; Johann STRAUSS II (1825-1899): Ballsträusschen Op.380 (1878); Lob der Frauen Op.315 (1866-67); Charles GOUNOD (1818-1893): La colombe – entr’acte (1860). Matthias Höfs, trumpet (Arben); Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Werner Stiefel .
This is fun! Miloslav Koenneman was a composer and military musician who came to Baden-Baden around 1850. He composed this very charming piece of music -a little like Hans Christian Lumbye. It is performed outdoors every year in Baden-Baden and the audience is meant to sing along in the hymn in the end of the piece -like Pomp and Circumstance. Even Mark Twain loved it -arriving tired in Baden-Baden around the time when Koenneman was there and the author writes that the piece "delighted me, warmed me, moved me, stirred me, uplifted me, enraptured me." So this is a must -also for the tender and melancholy Gounod piece in the end of the CD. You will love this one.