Paul Lincke: Overtures, Vol. 1 – Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt & Ernst Theis

At last I have fulfilled a wish: The production of melody-saturated overtures and waltzes by Paul Lincke. It is also an overdue rehabilitation of the composer Lincke, who certainly wrote more than just the “Berliner Luft”. Of course, that is included in our Vol 1, and it is certainly not due to the rhymes of Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers that this march has become the unofficial Berlin anthem and has remained so to this day. It is Paul Lincke’s music, whose unashamed catchiness “overtakes you”, as his first biographer, the composer Edmund Nick, wrote: “Only a genuine Berliner like Lincke was capable of making a declaration of love to his father city in this way. All the softer emotions that move the Berlin heart are included in it.” Irrespective of such clichéd attributions, Paul Lincke founded something with works like this that had never existed before: Berlin’s own popular music. And like Franz Lehár, Paul Lincke was a master of instrumentation, but remained true to the classical orchestral movement, like his models Jacques Offenbach and Franz von Suppé. And he took special care with overtures, whether to a farce or an operetta, whereas most Viennese operettas of the time had to make do with a short prelude. Look forward to many Lincke discoveries!