Teike: Marches, Vol. 1 in Bloomington, MN

Germany's
Carl Teike
presents the interesting phenomenon of a relatively recent composer about whom little is known, something
Werner Probst
's booklet note here attributes partly to
Teike
's personal modesty. Whatever the case, although
Alte Kameraden
remains well-known to German-speaking listeners (the pop singer
Heino
continues to perform it) and in other parts of the world (it was used as a theme on Thai television news for some years), most of his music has been forgotten. It is well worth a new hearing, which it is getting from the
Royal Swedish Navy Band
under the baton of
Alexander Hanson
in the first of a series devoted to
. There are plenty more marches where these came from;
wrote about a hundred of them.
is undeniably catchy, and
tried to recapture its success in sequels such as
Regimentskameraden
,
Unter Waffengefährten
, and other instrumental odes to military conviviality, but the other pieces here are also of consistently high quality. Sample the substantial waltz-rondo
Nur ein Versuch
.
developed the pairing of winds and brass into a variety of colors.
Hanson
's performances are clean and reproduce these colors well. The
Naxos
label's sound, from the venerable Sparresalen in the band's home city of Karlskrone, is a bit boxy, but one perceives a certain idiomatic quality; the band must have played there many times. At any rate, band music lovers will be delighted with this release and will presumably look forward to its successors. ~ James Manheim