Karel Gott | LP MC MB Zwischen Moldau, Don und Donau

[Among Vltava, Don and Danube]

  1. album song  Text  Vínečko bílé - Už jsem obešel - Sedí sokol - Ta moja žena (Moravská suita) (4:23)
  2. album song  Text  Der rote Sarafan (3:25)
  3. album song  Text  Wedding Samba (2:51)
  4. album song ne Text  Csak egy kislany - Der süsse Wein, das heisse Blut - Egy Cica, ket Cica (4:17)
  5. album song  Text  Я встретил вас (2:52)
  6. album song  Text  Mann und Roß und Wagen (Kashbek) (2:58)
  7. album song  Text  Стенка Разин - Эй, ухнем (4:28)
  8. album song  Text  Einsamer Sonntag - Szomoru Vasárnap (3:35)
  9. album song  Text  Kako što e taa čaša - Jovano, Jovanke (Balkánská suita) (4:28)
  10. album song  Text  Išel Macek (Hej, Macejko) (2:07)
Karel Gott | Zwischen Moldau, Don und Donau

LP MC MB Polydor 2371316

Zwischen Moldau, Don und Donau (Among Vltava, Don and Danube) is really an exceptionally record, which was released both by Polydor and Supraphon. An album, which was released in 1972, presents Russian, Czech, Moravian, English and Balkan folk songs in the masterly interpretation of Karel Gott - see comments to the czech release, that was realised in 1973, after having recorded czech language versions of some songs. The album was released in several re-editions and in Komplet CD editions, together with the outstanding La canzone. Both of them belong among the best of Karel Gott's discography and we can only recommend them. The album has been praised by enthousiastic listeners all over Europe. Karel shows here not only his singing skills up to the very top, but a great skill to interprete any gengre in an outstanding way. Especially the Russian romance Ja vstretil vas is excells here - a real masterpiece...

PROMO '72: Karel Gott. For years it's been unnecessary to introduce him, because for years he's introduced himself to the German and international public with beautiful songs and successful hits. But why should a hit star sing folk songs? "They're very lovely songs," comments Karel Gott. "And when anybody at home makes music, then they naturally include many of these melodies." In many Slav countries and in the Balkans, folk songs are played day in day out, on the radio, in concert halls and at popular national festivals, to an extent quite unknown in Germany.

There's no Russian youngster who doesn't know the story of Stenka Razin, the "Ataman" of the Don Cossacks, who sacrificed his love for the brotherhood of arms. And of "Einsamer Sonntag" it's even said that after its publication in Hungary during the twenties it gave rise to a wave of suicides and was for a long time forbidden. Even little songs can have important results. At the beginning of this. LP Karel Gott presents a on the western border of Czechoslovakia and the Carpathians in the east. A mixture of Hungarian gypsy music, Bohemian and Polish peasant dances; the texts, partly sentimental and partly blunt humour, also have their roots in the everyday peasant round.

"Der rote Sarafan" is already nearly 150 years old and is numbered today among the classics of the folk song. In the original version, this dialogue between mother and daughter before the wedding comprises ten verses, but despite its length it belongs in the standard repertoire of every Russian singer. Every gypsy virtuoso plays the "Wedding Samba", a modern version of the wellknown Rumanian Wedding-dance. In the fifties this tune appeared on the interna-tional hitparades. Of the songs in the Hungarian gypsy suite, "Csak egy kislany" in particular became world famous through Pablo de Sarasate's "Zigeunerweisen", a tune which is to be heard in many countries and is not played only by gypsy ensembles. "Ja vstretil vas", the finale on the first side, is one of the folk songs which even the most celebrated Russian singer cannot neglect. "Kashbek", a melody named after one of the highest Caucasian mountains, is among the songs on the second side of the LP. In Georgia the song is known as the "Georgian" song, because it's still sung today by descendants of earlier nomads. Particular mention should also be made of "Ej, uchnem!", one of the most popular songs of the Volga boatmen. In earlier days it helped them to pull their barges at a steady pace through shallow water.

But whichever melody on listens to, they all offer Western Europeans something strange and at the same time something familiar: specifically Slav musical forms and fascinating blends of sound, but besides these the straightforward, simple character and build-up of themes which distinguish all the world's good folk songs. Karel Gott's versatile voice lends itself well to great melodies. Like almost nobody else, he understands how to express every mood and feeling, ranging from tender sadness to restrained pleasure and over-flowing passion. He sings them gladly, these songs from the country between the Moldau, the Don and the Danube.