Fantasy on “Hansel and Gretel”

The same procedure was followed by Berthold Tours, who worked melodies from the fairytale opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck into a colourful Fantasy featuring tunes such as “Ein Männlein steht im Walde” (‘A man stands in the forest’) or the “Knusperwalzer” (‘Gingerbread Waltz’). Tours was a Dutch-English violinist, composer and editor who studied at conservatoires in Brussels and Leipzig. After spending some time in Russia, he moved to London in 1861 and remained here for the rest of his life. In London he worked as a violinist, violin teacher, organist and composer – and latterly also in a music publishing house. His work as a composer is broad in scope. This Humperdinck Fantasy is an imaginative example of the virtually endless supply of variations composed on popular operatic melodies in the 19th Century. Plate no. 25821, published in 189