Reizenstein was a skilled arranger, in his LambethWalk Variations, based on the popular song from NoelGay's 1937 musical, ‘Me and My Girl’, which assigns adifferent composer to each variation, he does notmerely write in the style of the featured masters, butcunningly recomposes one or two of their pieces –Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2, ‘La Donna e Mobile’from Act Three of Verdi’s Rigoletto, Wagner’s Preludeand Overture to Die Meistersinger, Liszt’s HungarianRhapsody No.2, etc. - by morphing them into the‘Lambeth Walk’ theme. As with all first-rate examplesof comedy, the humourist (and executant) must be onabsolutely top form for the joke to succeed. Datingfrom the late 1950s, the Variations were premiered bythe composer at the Royal Albert Hall on 17 July 1958at a concert presented by Anthony Hopkins and FritzSpiegel.
- ISMN: 9790708129370 (M708129370)
