March 4, 2019

  • All Aboard! Railroading in Music

     

    Railroad Rhythms: Classical Music About Trains
    SWR Rundfunkorchester Kaiserlautern/Jiri Starek
    SWR Music 19401
    Total Time:  61:46
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    When one thinks about music depicting one of the great 19th Century inventions, the railroad train, the most immediate piece that comes to mind is Honegger’s Pacific 231 (1923).  This new compilation from SWR Music pulls together 14 pieces of music in a sort of international musical celebration.  The recordings were all made back in 2005 and 2006.  The present release is a repackaging of that album.

    If anything, this is just a fascinating collection of pieces, many will be quite unfamiliar to even the most well-rounded Classical listener.  The music is well chosen with pieces as early as the delightful opening Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop (1848) by Hans-Christian Lumbye to music from Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town.  Highlights here include an excellent performance of Copland’s John Henry (1940/52) and a host of unknown pieces from the likes of composers such as Alois Pachernegg’s Unter Dampf! Ein Zug fahrt voruber, or the nod to South American and Mexican colorists Villa Lobos (from his Bachianas Brasileira No. 2) and Revueltas (“Construction of the Railroad”).  More extended works, such as the aforementioned Honegger, also include a sinuous movement from D’Indy’s Poem des rivages, Op. 77 (“Horizons verts-Falconara”) and Hilding Rosenberg’s fun “Railway Fugue”.  Some polkas and a gallop by Johann Strauss, Jr. and Eduard Strauss also appear.

    The music is overall an infectious collection of pieces delightfully played here under Starek whose orchestra responds with equal glee.  The only odd piece is an arrangement of Dvorak’s Humoreske, Op. 101, no. 7, but it is simple one of the little extra treasures that fills out this great little program of pops-like pieces.  Also important is that the performances meet the unique stylistic shifts required for each of these works which is also an accomplishment worth celebrating.  The sound is also quite crystal clear and a bit more immediate and louder which makes it a great drive companion as you explore everything from the Paris Metro to the Coney Island Subway.