Denmark's Hans Christian Lumbye (you may have to be Danish to pronounce it, but try LUM plus B plus the sound surfers make when they say "d-u-u-u-de") was known as the "Nordic
Strauss," and like the Waltz King he wrote orchestral works in various dance forms besides the waltz, some of them extended multisectional pieces that can get quite colorful. The Naxos label, under its Marco Polo imprint, has taken on the large task of issuing Lumbye's complete orchestral works. This disc, volume 11, touches on some typical traits of the composer's music and thus may be taken as a representative sample. Excellent liner notes explain that parade of special effects -- gunshots, castanets, snatches of vocal song -- that pique the listener's interest as they go by, and there's much to learn about popular music of the nineteenth century from the dance fusions like the polka-mazurka included here. If Lumbye did not understand the waltz's subversive rhythmic qualities as well as
Strauss, his imagination as displayed here is fertile.
You may start off thinking that Nordic restraint is the watchword for these performances by the
Tivoli Symphony Orchestra under conductor David Riddell, but soon enough the bad news will dawn: they're just lifeless performances. The accurate readings of the notes on this disc may whet the appetite of the interested listener for more Lumbye, but those who have heard glittering, sensuous
Strauss from Vienna should wait for Lumbye with a bit more zest.