PARIS MIDNIGHT
Liane and the Boheme Bar Trio
Vanguard OVC 6017/18 (2 CDs) (mono) (M) TT:  64:18 & 64:57   

NIGHT AND DAY  Songs of Cole Porter
Liane and the Boheme Bar Trio
Vanguard OVC 6044 (M) TT:  42:12 

Liane Augustin was an acclaimed European cabaret singer, gaining  fame for her performances  in Vienna's  intimate Boheme Bar. Her popularity resulted in regular radio concerts, a series of Vanguard recordings and appearances in international nightclubs.  Liane's style is her own, although of course she suggests both Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich.  Should you enjoy quality cabaret singing  or if you're just looking for some highly entertaining "background music" you could do no better than these Vanguard reissues. Paris Midnight, a twin-CD set that contains three LPs issued in the '50s (Paris Midnight, Paris After Midnight, Rendezvous Avec Liane), offers Liane with the imaginative support of her regular collaborators, "The Boheme Bar Trio," consisting of pianist Michael Danzinger, Laszlo Gati playing guitar and accordion, and bassist Willi Fantel.  Arrangements, mostly by Danzinger, are tasteful, gentle and appealing.  No less than 50 "French Hits" are here including the inevitable La vie en rose, Autumn Leaves, Domino, La mer...etc., with a few instrumental solos  scattered throughout the set.  These are well-balanced monophonic  recordings  with a  totally pleasing intimate quality appropriate for performers and music.  

Of all Liane recordings, to me the finest is Night and Day, a Cole Porter collection that includes Night and Day, So In Love, What is This Thing Called Love, Magnifique, I Love Paris, Wunderbar and Miss Otis Regrets, mostly sung in English, some in German, a few in both languages.  It is an exquisite set.

Liane made a total of 11 LP albums for Vanguard, many of which have now been issued on CD.  In addition, she was Polly Peachum in Vanguard's recording of  Kurt Weill's Three-Penny Opera with a cast otherwise drawn from the Vienna State Opera, which won a Grand Prix du disque in 1957 and has yet to be issued on CD.  Other available Vanguard CDs, in addition to the two listed above, are Liane sings Cabaret Songs of Berlin and Vienna (OVC 6011), Orient Express (OVC 6027), A Continental Cocktail (OVC 6032), Glowing Embers (OVC 6037), Winter Wonderland & other Christmas Favorites (OVC 6040) and April in Paris (OVC 6043).  They are all simply wonderful.

R.E.B. (Jan. 2002)