Details: As of 2023, most of the multitude of manuscripts documenting the extensive oeuvre of the Lucerne-born composer Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von Schauensee are missing, if not lost forever. For this reason, there is no official catalogue of his works. His opera Die Engelbergische Talhochzeit (the Engelberg valley wedding) was reconstructed and edited by Hans Vogt and Hans Visscher van Gaasbeck in 1935. Acts one and two were performed as an incomplete work under the baton of Hans Vogt during the Swiss National Exhibition in Zurich in 1939. Sometime later, the third act was discovered in the music library of the Benedictine Abbey of St Andrew in Sarnen, following which Hans Vogt arranged the complete opera for a radio broadcast. This arrangement was recorded under his direction on December 10, 1958, and broadcast for the first time by Radio Basel on April 5, 1959. The opera went on to be performed in various concert halls throughout German-speaking Switzerland. In 1974, Armin Brunner directed the opera at a studio in Zurich for a DRS television broadcast, though significant cuts were made in the recording. In 1982, Talhochzeit was performed by the Zurich Opera at Stadthof 11 (now Theater 11) in Zurich and subsequently on a tour of various Swiss venues. Performances at the tradition-steeped Kantonsschule Obwalden grammar school in Sarnen in April 2015 (celebrating the 400-year history of the local abbey) and at the Kursaal hall of the Kempinski Palace hotel in Engelberg (marking the 200th anniversary of the accession of Engelberg to the canton of Obwalden) were the first since 1781 to feature the full composition with all it's roles and complete text. The sole complete recording of the work is featured on this CD and so is released here for the first time. The bonus tracks on the second CD are likewise without precedent on disc. Meyer von Schauensee composed a number of small-scale vocal works. The one presented here is titled Modetorheiten - eine Fastnachtsoperette (roughly: fashion fads - a Shrovetide operetta). This work lasts 30 minutes and seems to have been written for some occasion during the locally celebrated Shrovetide carnival of "Fastnacht"

Edith Mathis - Eine Engelberger Talhochzeit (CD)