For listeners to whom writers Schnitzler and Hofmannsthal, painters Klimt and Schiele, and composers Schreker and Zemlinsky mean nothing, this disc, entitled Franz Schreker und Ausdrucktanz will mean nothing. But for listeners to whom these writers, painters, and composers conjure images of youthful decadence, aesthetic violence, sensual opulence, and ecstatic despair, this disc will be just the thing to top off a night of debauched delights. Containing all the extant ballet works the young Franz Schreker wrote for the ...
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For listeners to whom writers Schnitzler and Hofmannsthal, painters Klimt and Schiele, and composers Schreker and Zemlinsky mean nothing, this disc, entitled Franz Schreker und Ausdrucktanz will mean nothing. But for listeners to whom these writers, painters, and composers conjure images of youthful decadence, aesthetic violence, sensual opulence, and ecstatic despair, this disc will be just the thing to top off a night of debauched delights. Containing all the extant ballet works the young Franz Schreker wrote for the sister-dancers Elsa and Grete Wiesenthal, advocates of the Viennese modern dance movement called Ausdrucktanz (Expressive Dance), the disc features sumptuous and sympathetic performances by John Axelrod leading the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester guaranteed to inflame all but the most exhausted listeners. While these are all early works -- Schreker had just turned 30 when he wrote the first of them -- they are also his first fully characteristic works and each one has that special Schreker...
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