It’s been a dozen years since Peter Schickele brought us the latest scores of the amazing PDQ Bach on a Telarc CD. He took off much of that time to do his public radio program Schickele Mix, which is now wound down. His return to commercial release is the first live recording of the music of the minimeister of Weinam Rhein, as well as of some works by Schickele himself. For example, the first rounds here are by the 18th century composer and the second pair are by Schickele himself. Schickele has written over 100 works for symphony, chorus, chamber ensembles, movies and TV, and is part of that school of American composers who unselfconsciously blend various aspects of American popular and folk music in their concert music.
The live concert took place this past June in an auditorium in Owings Mills, Maryland and was recorded in DSD (so perhaps we’ll eventually see a SACD version?). Schickele’s onstage introductions to the various selections are sometimes funnier than the music. And along the way one picks up some useful music history too – as one did with Anna Russell. For example, he talks about the strong scatological content of Mozart’s letters to his father and sister, and points out that due to this obsession, his favorite lyrics to set to music came from Heinrich Heine. The major work here is the rather lengthy PDQ Bach Quartet. It’s a bit more subtle than some of the musical parodies, but those familiar Mozart’s and Haydn’s string quartets will hear many clever references/exaggerations. The funniest material to my ears were the five Songs from Shakespeare, credited to Schickele and therefore done in a thoroughly modern – actually pop – style. Don’t worry – you don’t have to be a student of the Bard to appreciate them. They’re all very short and very pointed to the funny bone.
— John Sunier
