Subtle, malicious, entertaining: Haider sings Kreisler

Created: 01/11/2023, 09:00

By: Fabian Holzner

A pantomime and musical delight: tenor Heribert Haider interpreting the songs of Georg Kreisler, accompanied by Tobias Jackl.

© Fabian Holzner

Tenor Heribert Haider celebrates the pieces by Georg Kreisler.

The spectators in the packed cinema café are thrilled.

Taufkirchen

– rhyming wickedness and unpleasant truths with a lot of wit brought the organizers of the homage evening to Georg Kreisler a packed cinema – and the visitors hours of subtle and cheerful.

The Austrian "piano humorist" already asked the eponymous question "Say, if there is a war now - what will happen to my dog?" at the end of the 1960s.

The Hubenstein tenor Heribert Haider demonstrated to the amused audience on the occasion of Kreisler's 101st birthday how many similarly important considerations are still looking for a reasonable answer today.

Haider underlined his presentation with expressive gestures and facial expressions.

With a pained face he suffered from banalities, with a mad grin he convinced his roles themselves of their fanatical ideas, and with a stupid, helpless look he failed due to adversity himself.

Almost every line of the song offered the opportunity for a gestural or pantomimic interpretation, and the freelance tenor turned a musical performance into a Kreisler production.

"A lot is spontaneous, but I'm just a stage person.

I also took a close look at Kreisler's facial expressions," said Haider after his performance.

He has many years of experience as a Kreisler interpreter.

Before the concerts with Jackl, he already gave the program with the Taufkirchen pianist Andrea Traber, who recorded the evening with camera and microphone for her internet channel "Taufkirchen TV".

The Schwindegger pianist had gained international stage experience after his artistic diploma and concert diploma, but not yet in nearby Taufkirchen.

Despite the proximity, his performance was also his first visit to the cinema café, which he was very impressed by: "The energy of the audience was great, the people were really involved.

I took the program booklet with me and will definitely cycle here in the summer," he said after his performance.

"We've given this program for the third time tonight, and each time I've been able to move away from the music a little more," said the 37-year-old.

The audience thanked the top-class concert in a relaxed atmosphere with long applause and demanded encores.

"Not only the mass of lyrics, but also the machine gun-like speed with which Heribert Georg Kreisler performed was impressive," said Sebastian Scheuerer from Taufkirchen, for example.

Recognition also came from fellow musician Christian Weber from Kirchberg: “He does it fantastically.

Heribert Haider makes a good presentation out of good material, it was an experience.”

This cultural experience also drew some Dorfeners to the cinema café.

Stefan Brandhuber said: "Kreisler was a critical of power, non-conformist and very humorous artist, and Heribert lives that on stage, he conveys it very coherently." Heiner Müller-Ermann has known as a Kreisler fan since childhood and talked about memories from his School days in Kronach, where a young music teacher played "Poison the Pigeons" in class.

During military service, the song "Der General" was an option, said the SPD local politician with a laugh.

He found out about the concert from his son Jakob, who, as a regular guest "in the best pub far and wide", also didn't miss the cultural start to the new year.

Heribert Haider can be seen and heard in a different role, but not in a different guise, then again in tails, on Saturday, February 25th with the band "Bavarian Immigrants" in the cinema café.