Yvonne Kenny. Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Richard Bonynge

ABC Classics 476 6905

***½

The 18 tracks on this CD provide over 65 minutes of music centred, as the title suggests, on the genre known as Viennese operetta. The composers range across the whole Austro-Hungarian Empire with Johann Strauss II, Zeller, Lehár (5 selections), Novello, Kálmán, Stolz, Heuberger, Kreisler and Sieczynski, the composer of the title song (which is not from an operetta).

Though I must admit to not caring very much for this style of music, I have long been enchanted by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s 1960s EMI release with Otto Ackermann conducting a lively Philharmonia Orchestra. Ackermann knew the Viennese operetta style intimately and made some wonderful recordings in the 50s and 60s, including the Schwarzkopf one, which has been transferred to CD. Comparison with this gem is invited by virtue of the duplication contained in the present disc, and is not to Miss Kenny’s advantage – inevitably, given that Schwarzkopf was a Queen in this repertoire, right down to her Viennese accent. 

But Yvonne Kenny is a fine soprano who, though now edging past her prime, has the guile and experience not to take too many risks. She has always sung with good taste and, one must not forget, was in possession of a lovely, lyrical soprano instrument. Her singing here may perhaps lack the last degree of Viennese ‘Schmalz’ and show signs of tiring when reaching for notes but overall her fans will be far from disappointed. Bonynge knows his stuff really well and the orchestra sounds nice and big. The disc is best heard in small servings. To listen straight through could be a bit indigestible, rather like eating three helpings of Sacher Torte. – John Grant