Tim Fischer’s Kreisler homage “The Tiger Festival” in the Lustspielhaus – Munich

The always critical Georg Kreisler once ennobled the young Tim Fischer to the legitimate interpreter of his works. Logically, Fischer was keen to pay a special tribute to the creator of modern music cabaret on his 100th birthday, which he could have celebrated last July. “Tigerfest” is the name of the elaborately produced album that came with it, which of course could only be a foretaste of the live show that Fischer was now also presenting in the Lustspielhaus.

There he gave the first part of the classic Kreisler of the late 1950s, from “Opera Boogie” to “The Civil Servant” to “My Weib Wants to Leave Me”. In tails, Fischer put himself in Kreisler’s perspective, concentrating entirely on the ingenious gimmicks in which he interpreted only minimally invasively, because these texts are either timeless anyway – or red hot like “If everyone did that”, which is still like 60 years later the definitive contribution to the “work-life balance” debate sounds. Then after the break there was a radical change of roles: now with a wig and a fiery red latex dress, Fischer introduced the largely unknown Georg Kreisler of the 1970s. Not the anarchist social critic and master of the macabre, but the late romantic who wrote bittersweet love chansons for his then-wife Toppsy Küppers and easily put himself in a female perspective.

There was now a lot of room for Fischer’s androgynous presence and his singing qualities. And for the great musical accompaniment by Sebastian Weiß on the grand piano, Hauke ​​Renken on the vibraphone and Oliver Potratz on the bass, who, as perhaps the most versatile German jazz bass player, also took care of the wonderfully complex arrangements. Unsurpassed templates, the ideal interpreter and optimal accompanist – one could hardly have wished for a better Kreisler evening that revealed more facets of the master.