Franz Lehar - Schon Ist Die Welt

All Music Guide

Dermota, Kern, Gerhold, Franz Lehar/Vienna Radio Orchestra. This and the accompanying Wo die Lerche Singt and Giuditta are glorious musical finds. The existence of complete Lehar operettas conducted by the composer is extraordinary -- not even Richard Strauss left behind recordings of him conducting his own operas. The presence of the beloved tenor Anton Dermota in the role of the Crown Prince, and Adele Kern, who originated the part of Elisabeth on stage a decade earlier, makes this a priceless release. There's more dialogue than would be the case in recordings, but it's all indexed so that one can program the music by itself. The story is a delightful light opera confection about a pair of couples, one believing they've been mismatched by the king, and the other unable to tell the king of their being married. It all works out in the end, in the kind of story that both Maurice Chevalier and Bing Crosby were doing on screen all the time. The music, while lacking the overwhelming lyrici...sm of Lehar's very best work, has considerable charm, and the clarity of these 1942 radio transcriptions is extraordinary. The only technical drawback is that there seem to be traces of "print-through" on the master tapes, creating a barely audible after-echo, but this isn't a major problem. - Bruce Eder, All Music Guide Read more Less