Augsburger Allgemeine 6th May 1991

"Der Watzmann ruft" - concert sold out twice

Watzmann live CD

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(lim). There are proper traditional hats in the foyer, besides braces, lighters and keyfobs. On all of them is written: "Der Watzmann ruft" ("Watzmann calls"). It's been doing that - musically talking - for a good 11 years you know and many have also followed its now newly laid-out call. The shows on Friday and Saturday had been sold out for weeks.

Der Watzmann ruft is a so-called Rustical from the Viennese rock bard Wolfgang Ambros and the two cabaret artists Manfred 0. Tauchen and Josy Prokopetz. It tells the story of the Watzmann mountain which calls its victims. A little rock theatre, a little peasants' play, the boundaries are totalled blurred and are appropriately commented on by a happy and partly costumed audience.

A naturalistic homeland backdrop - with mountain farmer hut and papier maché rocks - makes the scenery. A sharp comic runs before around 1400 peope, who break into the call "hollaröhdulliöh" again and again, the farm labourers are ignorant, the farmer violent, the girls chatty. At the keyword "storm", a dark cardboard cloud with zig-zag lightning rumbles in on a winch and a ribald striptease on Walpurgis night doesn't seem "out of place" either.

The storyteller, but also singer, is Wolfgang Ambros, he captivates the audience with his soft voice. He tells of the fateful mountain, as if he had gone to school under Luis Trenker, Manfred O. Tauchen gets a triple pack in the play, as he is farmer, labourer and sultry "Gailtalerin" (horny girl from the valley) - exceeding each role with the next. During te last tour, the third in the bunch was co-author Josy Prokopetz. The mountain climbing probably became too much for him, Christoph Fälbl appears in his place, certainly one of the great discoveries of this tour.

Alpinkatzen, from Austria

As usual, Wolfgang Ambros has a good band with him, which changes from country dance, through rock 'n' roll to waltz without batting an eyelid, the Alpinkatzen from Austria fit in perfectly. The end of the play of fate is macabre, no matter which of the versions offered you choose to remember. But it's not meant so seriously, but rather "Hollaröhdulliöh".

BMG 16th October 2002

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Thirty years ago, the shrill alpine show, the rustical from M.O. Tauchen with music by Wolfgang Ambros and lyrics by Josie Prokopetz was performed for the first time and has since then matured to a cult.

This first alpine musical tells the story of the cruel Watzmann mountain, which regularly calls the sons of the mountain farmers to it and lets them run into disaster, but this is really only the framework for loads of fun ... lots of figures, like the Gailtalerin for example, became cult figures a long time ago!

Apart from the actual rustical (rustic musical) Watzmann live (recording from the sensational tour in 91), a documentary about the origin of the Watzmann cult will be offered with rarities from the early years (1972 - 1982) believed to have been lost. With which one good joke or other, and naturally the at times dramatically atmospheric and at times rousing, swinging music between rock and folk dance - of course performed live (with Hubert von Goisern among others!), the piece reaches a high class of humour, without sinking to the level of beer tent humour.

A timeless alpine saga - the mountain calls!

Photos : Veronika Kub / Hot Fingers - Wien