Gottlieb Wallisch, Johannes Wildner - Zeisl: Piano Concerto, Pierrot in der Flasche Sute (2007)

CPO should be commended for promoting neglected nineteenth and twentieth century works by obscure German and Austrian composers, but not all of these forgotten pieces deserve equal attention, and some of the label's releases are weak enough to be dismissed after one hearing. Take, for example, this 2007 album of the Piano Concerto in C major and the ballet suite Pierrot in der Flasche by Erich Zeisl, a long forgotten Viennese composer whose reputation CPO has attempted to revive through this disc and a previous 2005 release of his lieder. In the present selections, Zeisl's music is variably post-Romantic and modernist but recognizably tonal and accessible, in a way that sometimes recalls the flashiness of Richard Strauss, the arch neo-classicism of Igor Stravinsky, and the shimmering exoticism of Béla Bartók or Maurice Ravel, yet it is not slavishly imitative of these styles. However, the Piano Concerto is tedious and almost oppressive in its dense, heavy-handed scoring, and there is rarely a break for the inelegant, choppy piano part in this hyperactive and clumsy work. Similarly, Pierrot in der Flasche suggests some acquaintance with Stravinsky's L'Oiseau de feu and Petrouchka but is considerably less inspired in its thick orchestration and unexceptional in its melodies and scene-painting. Neither of these minor works invites repeated listening, except perhaps as background music; though the playing of pianist Gottlieb Wallisch and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Johannes Wildner, is energetic and enthusiastic, this CD is only mildly interesting and far from a major discovery. The reproduction, though, is first-rate.