July 27, 2022
There is no better, more exciting and more instructive way of conveying these “legends of sound film” than the chansonette Susanne Marik at the Lehár Festival in the Kongress & Theater Haus in Bad Ischl. Marik met an enthusiastic audience in a light dress for Europe and in a dark adaptation for America. With the assistance of Uwe Garrels, she wrote the texts in an exciting and instructive to cheerful way and presented them with hits that are mostly popular to this day.
Accuracy, but also a lot of humor
No fewer than 18 songs of various styles were played during the unforgettable evening. The spiritus rector of the musical composition is Susanne’s husband Béla Fischer, who led the members of the palace ensemble from the piano with accuracy but also a lot of humor: Thorsten Schwarz (bass), Thomas Ritter (clarinet), Benjamin Laseer and Christian Ausserhuber (saxophone) as well as Elias Pivec (drums).
A historical detail in the transition from silent to talkie: The grandiose silent film star Harry Liedke suddenly became superfluous and had to be dubbed by Richard Tauber. Marik also addressed the cultural policy of Hitler and Goebbels, which apart from the “Jewish question” shamelessly used the authorized artists for the political interests of the Nazis and also managed this with seemingly positive decisions. For example, Wolf Albach Retty, Hans Albers, OW Fischer, Johannes Heesters, Hans Holt, Attila Hörbiger, Marika Rökk, Paul Hörbiger, Heinz Rühmann and Zarah Leander were put on display as privileged “God-gifted”. Irrespective of this, Rühmann and Albers were one of the most popular acting duos in the new talkie thanks to “The Three from the Gas Station”.
Of course, the move to the USA gave the musicians mentioned additional effective opportunities in the interests of diseuse for the pianist Béla Fischer. In addition to many details and songs, Fred Astaire suddenly appeared, tap-dancing, it was a pleasure. Fischer’s son Michael slipped into this role. His “stepmother” (Marik’s own definition) led him to dance and he suddenly banged “Puttin’ On The Ritz” on the floor.
Towards the end we went to Vienna, where “Reblaus”, known from Hans Moser’s interpretations, turned out to be the favorite song of the chansonette, which was immediately followed by the hit “Hello Dienstmann” (Moser/Paul Hörbiger). The duo Marik/Fischer now has at least 15 musical programs available. For years, Ischl has been the place where the two likeable and creative “musicians” have their very best ideas, primarily for the benefit of the Lehár Festival.
Next cabaret evening on August 4th: Roman Seeliger will present the program “Cabarets of Operetta” from 8 p.m.
By Ingo Rickl
