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In fact the “Comedian Harmonists” took an example from an already existing model “The Revelers”, an American group, created exactly 85 years ago, on 30th of November 1924.
It seems that “they all made solo records as well and recorded in various combinations as vocalists with dance bands, often uncredited“.

“The Revelers” with “Was it a dream”, recorded in 1928:

Another of their songs – “Lucky day”:

The “Comedian Harmonists” were not the only singer ensemble in Germany – an interesting research went on Youtube about the German group called “Die Abels” or later “Die 5 Songs”. As the member wally1435 on Youtube pointed out about them: “a group of Hungarians, who found success in Germany, they were an inspiration to the Comedian Harmonists, who soon surpassed them in popularity”:

The groups then changed easily (too easily?) their names. The same “Die Abels” can also be found as “Abel-Quartett”:

“Bei Lied und Wein”:

Who knows, if the American „The Mills Brothers“ were an inspiration to the “Comedy Harmonists” too? It could be – “The Mills Brothers” appeared in the late 1920’s. And they survived all through the years. Some of their many wonderful songs:

“Tiger Rag”:

“Till then”:

“Tis all a Chequier-board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one in the Closet sets.”

Omar Khayyam – Rubaiyat

We are all pawns of the providence’s whim. It is fascinating and distressing at the same time how the human beings can be raised to the Olympus and how easily they can be thrown back into oblivion. Sometimes they are themselves responsible for this reversal, but can you fight back the destiny?
Just such an example for me is the story of the “Comedian Harmonists“, the German singer ensemble. Founded by 5 young men this ensemble quickly became very successful not only in Germany. For a short time though. In 1934 the public performances for the Jews in Germany were prohibited. That was the end for the “Comedian Harmonists”, as there were Jews in the group. All their attempts to form a new ensemble were luckless.
Thanks to their existing recordings the “Comedian Harmonists” have a revival today. A movie about their lives was released and even a new ensemble with the same name and singing the same songs was created – but has the charm survived?
I was impressed by the perfection and the ease with which the “Comedian Harmonists” (the old ones) switch within the different genres.

Here Fritz Kreissler’s “Liebesleid”:

And this is Ali-Baba:

Probably those who speak German can best enjoy the songs like the next one “Kannst Du pfeifen, Johanna?” (1934):

or the excerpt from the documentary movie by Eberhard Fechner made in 1976:

„Кто мы? – куклы на нитках, а кукольник наш – небосвод.
Он в большом балагане своем представленье ведет.
Он сейчас на ковре бытья нас попрыгать заставит,
А потом в свой сундук одного за другим уберет.”

Омар Хайям – Рубаи

Вот такой мне показалась судьба немецкого ансамбля „Comedian Harmonists”.
Созданный пятью молодыми людьми, этот вокальный квинтет за короткое время стал одним из самых популярных, и не только в Германии. В нем участвовал и болгарин Аспарух Лешников. О нем я напишу отдельно.

Также неожиданно как этот ансамбль появился, также внезапно он и исчез – немецкая власть запретила выступления еврейских артистов, а их было несколько в этом составе. Жизнь продолжалась, но все усилия бывших членов создать новый ансамбль были обречены на неуспех.

Сегодня благодаря их записям о них снова вспомнили. Вышел фильм и появилась группа, не только носящая их имя, но и поющяя их песни – но копия не есть оригинал… Меня очаровало совершенство исполнения (старого ансамбля) и легкость, с которой они переходят из жанра в жанр.

Вот, например, Крейслер „Муки любви”:

Или Али – Баба:

Многими из песен, как например, „Ты можешь свистеть, Йоханна”, лучше всего насладятся те, кто знает немецкий:

After some biographical information as if he wanted to prove that Kalkbrenner had not only a nasty character, but was a mediocre musician as well, Mr. Nicholas inquires and answers himself: “What was he like as a pianist? Much can be gleaned from listening to the two concertos on this disc, written specially to show off every aspect of his technique – elegant execution (can one judge Kalkbrenner’s interpretation by listening to Howard Shelley’s?), rapid, even finger-work, emotionally and dynamically limited” (and again – whose interpretation is limited – Kalkbrenner’s? H.Shelley’s??). It seems to me that now Mr. Nicholas mixes it up completely. Not because of listening too long to Kalkbrenner’s music. No, but because Nicholas tries to stretch blindly copied phrases to make his point. Compare – from Harold Schonberg’s book “The great pianists”: “His (Kalkbrenner’s) playing might have been EMOTIONALLY AND DYNAMICALLY LIMITED, but there could be no denying the polish, elegance and accuracy of his performances”.

Now for a fairer “gleaning” I suggest to use a Kalkbrenner’s contemporary opinion, made just the year when he presented his first concerto in Europe. A contemporary whom I trust – the 19 -years old Fanny Mendelssohn. From her letter to Felix Mendelssohn: “Wir hören ihn oft und suchen von ihm zu lernen. Er vereinigt die verschiedensten Vorzüge in seinem Spiel: Präcision, Klarheit, Ausdruck, die grösste Fertigkeit, die unermüdlichste Kraft und Ausdauer. Er ist ein tüchtiger Musiker und besitzt einen ertaunlichen Ueberblick.“ – „We listen to him often and try to learn from him. He unites the various merits in his playing: precision, clearness, expression, the greatest dexterity, the most surprising strength and endurance. He is a proficient musician and posses an astonishing survey.”
And this is Chopin speaking: “If Paganini is perfection, Kalkbrenner is his parallel, only in a different way.”

Last glance at the booklet and I started to feel pity not only for Kalkbrenner but for poor Howard Shelley too – for besides all the rest Kalkbrenner was “fairly merciless in his demands on both fingers and stamina – there are few opportunities for Mr. Shelley to take his hands from the keyboard once he has begun”. One could just imagine exhausted Howard Shelley, complaining over a bottle (or two?) of wine his “merciless job” to understanding, sympathizing Jeremy Nicholas…

But seriously, how was it possible to unite in the same CD presentation two completely opposite attitudes?! This will remain a mystery for me.

Nevertheless, there is one important lesson I learned from Mr. Nicholas – think twice before asking somebody to write your booklet text!! Especially if you intend to play some unknown music you are fond of.

And now it is time to listen to Howard Shelley with Kalkbrenner’s first piano concerto, first movement:

With some cautiousness I continued my reading of the booklet only to learn that Heine “lampooned him as ‘a bonbon fallen in the mud’” (by the way, not Heine’s own definition) and reported of a concert in 1843 that “on (Kalkbrenner’s) lips there still gleamed that embalmed smile which we recently noticed on those of an Egyptian pharaoh …” What Mr. Nicholas omits to say is that already in 1836 Kalkbrenner began to suffer from gout and nervous conditions, which certainly made the playing painful, so from 1836 he almost withdrew from the stage. Obviously he was quite satisfied with his life and achievements. All the sarcastic critics on him were written in these last years of his life. The same Heine wrote in 1831 about Kalkbrenner’s playing “Vollkommenheit, der nichts gleichkommt” (Nothing comes near to his perfection). Two years later, in 1833 Robert Schumann shared with his mother that he is meeting often Kalkbrenner, “dem feinsten, liebeswürdigen (nur eitlem) Franzosen.”-”with the finest, amiable (only vain) French.”

But back to the booklet – now the case was worsening: it seemed that the vanity lay in the family: “the father …whose own inflated sense of self-worth led him in 1803 not only to re-arrange Mozart’s Don Giovanni for the Parisian theatre but to interpolate fresh pieces into the opera”… In those old days (in turbulent France as elsewhere) it was not a crime to use or arrange another’s music for any purpose. Like Mozart taking some arias from Martin y Soler’s opera “Una cosa rara”, or from Sarti’s “I due litiganti “ to his “Don Giovanni”, like Steven Storace inserting in his “Siege of Belgrade” Mozart’s Turkish March… and so on…and so on… The very important author’s rights in force nowadays are a more modern conception.

Online I found an enlightening article by Richard S. Bogart, here an excerpt from it:
“Before the middle of the nineteenth century, opera was a much more fluid and dynamic art form than it is today: operas were written for specific theaters and performers, even for specific occasions. When, exceptionally, an opera proved so successful that it merited performances elsewhere or in succeeding seasons, there was no hesitation about adapting its text and music to fit the circumstances. Any significant revival of an opera, that is, one at a major opera house and in which the composer and/or the librettist had a hand, was almost certain to represent a revision. With the creators absent, even greater liberties might be taken by the performers by way of cuts, re-writes, interpolations, and substitutions from other operas…….”

How could it be that although writing on the subject, Mr. Jeremy Nicholas had never heard of that?… Well, let’s accept the inevitable, nobody is perfect.