Die Landstreicher [The Vagabonds]

Ziehrer quickly became one of Vienna's foremost composers in the field of light music, receiving particularly valuable help from Carl Haslinger, who was Johann Strauss Jr's publisher. Unlike Strauss, Ziehrer was a pianist, who directed with a conductor's baton, not as a leading violinist. He wrote countless orchestral compositions, principally waltzes, but also marches and polkas, many of which were highly popular in their day. He also wrote more than 20 stage works, yet most of these operettas are barely known today, with only Die Landstreicher (1899) still remembered. It's a happy, charming work, slightly sentimental and cast in a popular style. This recording sets another jewel in Capriccio Operetta Edition's mission to restore the profiles of undeservedly neglected composers of the genre.