Tim Mahon wrote:

>...is the piece originally by Waldteufel? And if so, why did Chabrier
>bother orchestrating it, since the piece on the radio this afternoon seemed
>to be indistinguishably orchestrated from my memory of the Chabrier!

Waldteufel wrote a waltz based on Chabrier's Espagna!  Although it
contains the same tune it is nothing like the original Chabrier which has
real imagination and a spirit of fun.  Chabrier's orchestration, not to
mention the rhythms, leaves Waldteufel for dead.  Chabrier may not, for
all I know, have written the tune but he certainly didn't get it from
Waldteufel.  Chabrier wrote lots of music that is as equally inventive
as Espagna.  Try the DG disk by John Eliot Gardiner and the Wiener Phil.
Its a delight.  Especially the Fete Polonaise.  Talk about erotic!  It's
delightfully obscene; like something out of Zola's La Terre!

Gerald Kelly
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