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Straus - Wagner: Lieder / Siegel, Dobner

Haenssler Classic

Available as CD

~~$20.99~~ $15.99

Jan 17, 2020

Two of the greatest practitioners of High Romantic art song were, not surprisingly, also exceptional opera composers: Richard Wagner (1813-1883) and Richard Strauss (1864-1949). While the former cultivated all-encompassing music dramas to the near exclusion of everything else, the latter worked successfully in genres ranging from chamber music to grand symphonies. German lieder attained a relative highpoint in the work of Franz Schubert, whose 600+ individual songs and organic song cycles deserve pride of place. However, that achievement must not overshadow the later evolution of the genre in generations from Mendelssohn to Schoenberg. Great lieder are distinguished by psychological commentary provided by purely musical means, whereby details of range, harmony and chromaticism, and the role of the accompaniment provide deeper reflection on (often) quite superficial love poetry. Such opportunities for richer exploration increased in the late 19th century as poets—along with philosophers and psychologists—probed deeper into the human psyche.

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Straus - Wagner: Lieder / Siegel, Dobner

~~$20.99~~ $15.99
CD

Haenssler Classic

Jan 17, 2020

HC19078

Clair-Obscur / Sandrine Piau, Orchestre Victor Hugo Franche-Comté, Jean-François Verdier

Alpha

Available as CD

~~$20.99~~ $15.99

Mar 12, 2021

‘The dreamer! That double of our existence, that chiaroscuro of the thinking being’, wrote Gaston Bachelard in 1961. ‘The old is dying, the new cannot be born, and in that chiaroscuro, monsters appear’, adds Antonio Gramsci. Sandrine Piau has chosen to use these two quotations as an epigraph to her new recording: ‘My family and friends know about this obsession that never leaves me completely. The antagonism between light and darkness. The chiaroscuro, the space in between . . .’ This program, recorded with the Orchestre Victor Hugo under its conductor Jean-François Verdier, who is also principal clarinettist of the Paris Opéra, travels between the chilly Rhenish forest of Waldgespräch, a ballad by Zemlinsky composed for soprano and small ensemble in 1895, the night of the first of Berg’s Seven Early Songs (1905-08), and the sunlight of Richard Strauss’s Morgen, which are followed by the Four Last Songs, composed in 1948, the first two of which, Frühling and September (evoking spring and autumn respectively) are also, as Sandrine Piau concludes, ‘the seasons of life’.

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Clair-Obscur / Sandrine Piau, Orchestre Victor Hugo Franche-Comté, Jean-François Verdier

~~$20.99~~ $15.99
CD

Alpha

Mar 12, 2021

ALPHA727

Idil Biret Concertos & Solo Music Edition

Idil Biret Archive

Available as CD

~~$85.99~~ $60.99

May 11, 2018

After making her first solo piano LP recording in 1959 at the age of seventeen, Idil Biret had to wait nearly three decades before recording with an orchestra in a studio. In 1988 she recorded in London the 2nd and 4th Piano Concertos of Saint-Saens with the legendary Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by James Loughran. The Philharmonia Orchestra was established after WWII and employed extensively by another legend of music, the great producer Walter Legge, to make recordings for EMI/HMV. It was led by some of the greatest conductors of the twentieth century, such as Furtwangler, Toscanini, Richard Strauss, and Karajan. Many great pianists had recorded with this orchestra. During the next twenty-five years Biret made recordings of over sixty works for piano and orchestra in studio and at concerts under the baton of eminent conductors including Jean Fournet, Emil Tabakov, and Toshi Shimada. All of these have been released on Naxos and IBA under Naxos catalogue numbers. Additionally, live recordings of other piano concertos from Biret's concertos from 1954 onwards with eminent orchestras are available as well. All of the aforementioned are included in this enormous release.

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Idil Biret Concertos & Solo Music Edition

~~$85.99~~ $60.99
CD

Idil Biret Archive

May 11, 2018

8501207

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9

Alpha

Available as CD

~~$20.99~~ $15.99

Sep 06, 2024

Following their recordings of Bruckner's Symphonies Nos. 7 (ALPHA932, Diapason d'Or) and 8 (ALPHA987, awarded 'best symphonic recording of the year' at the International Classical Music Awards), Paavo Jarvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich here conclude their tribute to the Austrian composer in this bicentenary year with a recording of his 9th symphony. The orchestra's history has been closely linked to Bruckner since it gave the first Swiss performance of one of his symphonies under Richard Strauss in 1903. "The great classical and romantic tradition of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich make it ideally suited to Bruckner, the central composer for modern symphony orchestras," says Paavo Jarvi. Bruckner composed this musical farewell (he wrote the words "a farewell to life" in the score) in his final years; legend has it that he was still working on the symphony on the day he died.

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 9

~~$20.99~~ $15.99
CD

Alpha

Sep 06, 2024

ALPHA1068

Four Trumpet Sonatas after Mozart

Linn Records

Available as CD

~~$20.99~~ $15.99

Nov 12, 2021

Conceived by Jonathan Freeman-Attwood and Mozart scholar Timothy Jones, this program of four sonatas ‘by’ and ‘after’ Mozart represents a belated apology to the composer on behalf of all trumpet players. Had the trumpet developed into a chromatic solo instrument in the 1770s and 80s – like the oboe or flute – Mozart might have been inspired to write great music for the instrument. Following eight recordings for Linn of similarly re-imagined trumpet and piano music from Monteverdi to Richard Strauss, this recital is a compelling new contribution to the trumpet repertoire with four Classical-style sonatas, drawing on varied styles and periods in Mozart’s music. It exhibits canvases from the Salzburgian church sonata to the strutting swagger of a 21-year-old pianist-composer in Munich and two large mid- and late-sonatas from the golden Viennese years. Accompanying Freeman-Attwood is the multi-award-winning Polish pianist Anna Szalucka.

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Four Trumpet Sonatas after Mozart

~~$20.99~~ $15.99
CD

Linn Records

Nov 12, 2021

CKD668

Festmusik: A Legacy / Onyx Brass

Chandos

Available as SACD

~~$21.99~~ $16.99

May 07, 2021

Described as 'easily the classiest brass ensemble in Britain' by BBC Music Magazine, Onyx Brass continues to be the leading light in establishing the brass quintet as a medium for serious chamber music, presenting it in the entertaining and articulate style that has become the group's trademark. For this, it's third recording for Chandos, Onyx Brass presents a programme steeped in the German romantic tradition. Arrangements for small ensemble of works by Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Rubinstein, and Franz demonstrate the musicality and virtuosity of the group, as well as a wide expressive and textural range. The programme opens and closes with three large-scale works by Richard Strauss, in which the quintet is joined by a host of other top UK brass players and the conductor John Wilson. Festmusik der Stadt Wien for brass and timpani, written for the city of Vienna, is the only original composition: all the others are arrangements made by members of the group.

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Festmusik: A Legacy / Onyx Brass

~~$21.99~~ $16.99
SACD

Chandos

May 07, 2021

CHSA 5284

Karl Weigl: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand; Violin Concerto

Capriccio

Available as CD

$21.99

Oct 09, 2015

Since the revival of so-called Entartete Musik in the 1990s, interest in Karl Ignaz Weigl’s music has grown but he still remains a largely unknown figure to most listeners. Weigl was born in Vienna in February 1881 and had private composition lessons with Alexander Zemlinsky, a family friend. By the early-1920s, Weigl was an established figure in the musical landscape of Vienna and it was probably for this reason that he was approached by the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein to compose a left-hand piano concerto. Paul’s family fortune enabled him to commission some of the most eminent composers of the day to write works specially for him: Korngold, Britten, Hindemith, Prokofiev, Ravel, Franz Schmidt, Richard Strauss and Karl Weigl.

Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, Wittgenstein failed to perform Weigl’s concerto. Thus it was that the concerto received its belated premiere in 2002 in Vienna by Florian Krumpöck, the soloist on the present recording. Despite his no doubt discouraging experience with Wittgenstein, Weigl returned to the concerto medium four years later with a violin concerto.

It can be hoped that recordings such as the present one will help to further draw attention to his large and varied output which may yet contribute to the repertoire it was designed to enrich. - Capriccio

Karl Weigl: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand; Violin Concerto

$21.99
CD

Capriccio

Oct 09, 2015

C5232

Strauss: Don Quixote - Dvorak: Symphony No. 8 / Yo-Yo Ma, Jansons [Blu-ray]

Belvedere Edition

Available as Blu-Ray

~~$32.99~~ $24.99

Sep 14, 2018

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD
Recorded at the Philharmonie am Gasteig, Munich, 2016. As an artist in residence with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the American cellist Yo-Yo Ma had the opportunity to do what is perhaps the second thing he loves the most after playing: sharing his love of music with others. Yo-Yo Ma doesn’t fade away into the music, nor does he take a worshipful attitude towards the pieces he performs. From the moment he walks onto the stage, he exudes charisma that immediately confirms his truly exceptional status as the “best cellist in the world”. With its ten variations on a theme of knightly character for full orchestra, Richard Strauss’ tone poem “Don Quixote” not only depicts the colourful adventures of Cervantes’ chivalrous hero, but also functions as a virtuoso display of glorious solo melodies embedded in stunning orchestral passages. It is, in a way, a second Strauss cello concerto that can take it up with any other late-19th century piece of this kind. Joining “the Don” later is a viola solo that personifies the faithful Sancho Panza and is played by Wen Xiao Zheng.

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Strauss: Don Quixote - Dvorak: Symphony No. 8 / Yo-Yo Ma, Jansons [Blu-ray]

~~$32.99~~ $24.99
Blu-Ray

Belvedere Edition

Sep 14, 2018

BVE08024

Gundula Janowitz: The Last Recital

First Hand Records

Available as CD

~~$21.99~~ $18.99

Sep 01, 2017

Brigitte Fassbaender said: ‘Gundula Janowitz possesses one of those voices where you have only to hear a couple of notes and you immediately know who it is. Her elegant timbre and unmistakably instrumental way of forming the phrases is unique.’ Few singers have voices that approach the purity of Janowitz’s: with its very fast vibrato and ‘white’ production, the focused sound can soar, swoop and dip with astonishing ease and control, the vocal line becoming almost liquefied into a seemingly endless melisma. Janowitz’s recorded catalogue, tends to misrepresent the focus of her career because it downplays her work as a recitalist. Of course, she did tape all of Schubert’s songs for high voice but apart from a couple of late song recitals and a disc of Hindemith’s Das Marienleben, that is all we have to remember her by as a performer of song. So this album will be a welcome addition to her discography. For her Athens recital, Janowitz chose two composers absolutely at the centre of her song repertoire, Franz Schubert and Richard Strauss, with a third, Robert Schumann, forming a bridge between the two.

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Gundula Janowitz: The Last Recital

~~$21.99~~ $18.99
CD

First Hand Records

Sep 01, 2017

FHR56

Luís De Freitas Branco: Orchestral Works Vol 2 / Cassuto, Radio Telefis Eireann SO

Naxos

Available as CD

$19.99

Jan 27, 2009

Who was Luís de Freitas Branco? His Second Symphony combines Gregorian themes (Respighi) with richly lyrical chromaticism (Franck). After a reading of Guerra Junqueiro is pure Richard Strauss, Don Juan in particular, right down to the combination of solo violin, harp, and glockenspiel. Artificial Paradises is French, d'Indy trending toward Debussy and Ravel--there's an episode with rippling winds straight out of Daphnis and Chloe, except that the Branco is actually the earlier work (1910), the product of a 20-year-old composer with tremendous gifts.

What makes all of this so fascinating isn't that Branco is derivative, but that the music still rings so true. The Franck is good Franck, the Strauss just as glowing as the real deal. Branco doesn't conceal his influences, he revels in them, and this gives his music an authenticity and focus that makes the issue of sheer originality basically irrelevant. As in previous issues in this series, Álvaro Cassuto is the ideal exponent of his countryman's music, and the sound that Naxos gets in Dublin remains some of the finest on offer from this label. Excellent on all fronts!

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Luís De Freitas Branco: Orchestral Works Vol 2 / Cassuto, Radio Telefis Eireann SO

$19.99
CD

Naxos

Jan 27, 2009

8572059

Dohnanyi: The Veil of Pierrette / Matiakh, Vienna Radio Symphony

Capriccio

Available as CD

~~$21.99~~ $16.99

Feb 07, 2020

Who would assume today that after its premiere in 1910 Ernst von Dohnányi’s dance pantomime spread like a wildfire over the stages of the world. The ‘Wedding Waltz’ from Der Schleier der Pierrette could regularly be heard on musical request programmes on the radio, enjoying similar popularity to the waltz sequence from Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier. Dohnanyi’s choice of the genre of pantomime was entirely in keeping with the spirit of the age that, following the large-scale, plot-laden ballets of late Romanticism, sought to find in pantomime a more intimate and more naturalistic form of expression. It may come as a surprise that the source for Dohnányi derived from none other than Arthur Schnitzler (1862–1931), one of the salient representatives of fin-de-siècle Austria. With this first complete recording again an important gap is closed in the knowledge of repertoire of this fascinating epochal time of musical history.

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Dohnanyi: The Veil of Pierrette / Matiakh, Vienna Radio Symphony

~~$21.99~~ $16.99
CD

Capriccio

Feb 07, 2020

C5388

Schoenberg & Faure: Pelleas et Melisande

Alpha

Available as CD

~~$20.99~~ $15.99

Jul 19, 2024

No fewer than four major composers - Faure, Debussy, Schoenberg and Sibelius - were inspired by Maurice Maeterlink's play Pelleas et Melisande (1892). Given that we celebrate anniversaries of Faure and Schoenberg in 2024, Paavo Jarvi here offers his reading of their settings of Pelleas et Melisande with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, whose Music Director he was for almost ten years. Debussy was so much involved with his own operatic setting of Pelleas et Melisande that the famous English actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell turned to Gabriel Faure to write incidental music for the play; this music then became an orchestral suite in four movements that is considered to be Faure's symphonic masterpiece. Schoenberg followed advice given by his much-admired role model Richard Strauss in 1902 and composed his own symphonic poem based on Pelleas et Melisande. It's complex combinations of musical motifs and the rich fabric of the large-scale orchestra not only captivate us but also reveal his own vision of this archaic and yet universal story.

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Schoenberg & Faure: Pelleas et Melisande

~~$20.99~~ $15.99
CD

Alpha

Jul 19, 2024

ALPHA1058

Schubert: Symphonies - The "Unfinished" & "Great" / Janowski, Dresden Philharmonic

PENTATONE

Available as SACD

~~$21.99~~ $16.99

May 26, 2023

Marek Janowski presents his first purely-orchestral Schubert recording, together with the Dresdner Philharmonie, performing the composer’s two final, groundbreaking and most famous symphonies. While the two movements of the “Unfinished” symphony in B Minor reach a level of perfection despite the work’s apparent incompleteness, Robert Schumann praised the “Great” symphony in C Major for its “heavenly length”. Janowski’s interpretation combines a sense of tradition with vitality and intensity.

Marek Janowski is one of the most celebrated conductors of our time. After having recorded Schubert songs in orchestrations by Reger and Webern with the tenor Christian Elsner in 2015, Janowski now adds this symphonic Schubert album to his impressive Pentatone discography, following complete recordings of Bruckner, Brahms and Beethoven’s symphonies, several works by Richard Strauss, as well as Wagner’s ten mature operas. He works together with the Dresdner Philharmonie, with whom he already released complete recordings of Beethoven’s Fidelio (2021), Puccini’s Il Tabarro and Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana (both 2020).

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Schubert: Symphonies - The "Unfinished" & "Great" / Janowski, Dresden Philharmonic

~~$21.99~~ $16.99
SACD

PENTATONE

May 26, 2023

PTC5187065

Schreker: The Birthday of the Infanta - Suite / Falletta, Berlin Radio Symphony

Naxos

Available as CD

$19.99

Oct 12, 2018

Franz Schreker was a prominent figure in early 20th-century Austro-German music, his reputation as an opera composer rivaling that of Richard Strauss. The Prelude to a Drama is the concert overture of Schreker’s acclaimed opera Die Gezeichneten, a lurid drama involving murder and madness. Conceived as a theatrical pantomime, The Birthday of the Infanta adapts Oscar Wilde’s tragic tale of an ugly dwarf who dies of a broken heart, while the Romantic Suite fully explores the composer’s colorfully detailed and translucent orchestration and lyrical expressiveness. The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra dates back to the beginnings of music broadcasting in 1923. Since then it has developed its position to become one of Berlin’s top orchestras, and today is ranked in the highest echelon of German radio orchestras. JoAnn Falletta became the first female conductor to lead a major American ensemble upon her appointment as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1999.

-----

REVIEW:

Falletta obtains excellent playing from the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra with enormous climatic moments, opportunities for which are readily at hand in his late-Romantic, opulent orchestral scores. The sound quality from the German Radio is way beyond today’s norm. Unreservedly recommended.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

Schreker: The Birthday of the Infanta - Suite / Falletta, Berlin Radio Symphony

$19.99
CD

Naxos

Oct 12, 2018

8573821

Brahms: Complete Symphonies / Kempe, Munich Philharmonic

Profil

Available as CD

$27.99

Oct 07, 2022

For a long time Johannes Brahms was considered the epitome of conservatism, who, contrary to the disciples of Wagner and Liszt, fell back on old forms, which allegedly had no power anymore. Indeed, Brahms was an expert on music of the past, going back till the polyphonic composers of the 16th century. He made use of old patterns such as the variation and the interrelated passacaglia. He adopted the traditional four-movement symphony and its juxtaposition, respected the pattern of the sonata form and did hardly go beyond Beethoven when it came to instrumentation. However, the perception of Brahms as a “reactionary”, as it was initially argued by Nietzsche and later by the circle of Wagner and Richard Strauss, is unsustainable. No one less than Arnold Schoenberg has recognized the fundamentally different, which divided the composer Brahms, particularly as composer of symphonies, from the masters of the classical sonata and symphony in his famous paper “Brahms, der Fortschrittliche” (Brahms the Progressive)

Recorded 1974-75.

Brahms: Complete Symphonies / Kempe, Munich Philharmonic

$27.99
CD

Profil

Oct 07, 2022

PH20037

COMPLETE PHILIPS RECORDINGS

ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA

Available as CD

$85.49

May 27, 2022

Issued complete for the first time, including several albums new to CD, is the Philips catalogue of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble - an ensemble that made a defining contribution to Dutch musical life in the 1970s. The Netherlands Wind Ensemble began life in 1959 as a wind quintet, but soon expanded to play Classical-era serenades and divertimenti which were hardly known at the time but have since been recognised and enjoyed as masterpieces of entertainment music, notably the Gran Partita of Mozart, the late Octet by Beethoven and the wonderful Octet-Partitas by his Viennese contemporary, Franz Krommer. Starting to record for Philips in 1968, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble immediately won critical praise for the technical precision of it's playing as well as the brilliance and wit of it's interpretations, whether led by it's regular conductor Edo de Waart (himself a former oboist and member of the ensemble) or played as true chamber music. The ensemble made one of the first comprehensive recordings of Mozart's wind music, including miniatures, no less delightful for their brevity and rarity, and a precious but little-known collaboration with the much-loved Dutch soprano Elly Ameling. The youthful, funky vibe of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble was captured by Philips both in exceptionally vivid recordings as well as kooky cover designs, which are reproduced on the sleeves of the issues. A booklet essay by Peter Quantrill outlines the history and character of the ensemble, drawing on a new interview with Edo de Waart. The repertoire extends into the nineteenth century with a classic account of the Wind Serenade by Dvorak - the ensemble's debut on disc - as well as ingenious arrangements of overtures and arias by Rossini, and a unique collection of 'little marches by great masters'. The Netherland Wind Ensemble's long-standing commitment to modern music is represented by the wind music of Richard Strauss and Stravinsky, and the pioneering Jazz Symphony by the Franco-American 'bad boy' of classical music in the 1920s and 30s, Georges Antheil, recorded live at the 1976 Holland Festival.

COMPLETE PHILIPS RECORDINGS

$85.49
CD

ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA

May 27, 2022

ELOA4840240.2

Schumann: Symphonies / Janowski, Dresdner Philharmonie

PENTATONE

Available as SACD

~~$32.99~~ $24.99

Apr 05, 2024

Marek Janowski presents Schumann: Complete Symphonies, a comprehensive collection recorded together with the Dresdner Philharmonie. After a fruitful decade as a composer for piano and voice, Schumann then began writing symphonic works in 1841, marking a new phase in his life. Recorded between 2021 and 2023, Janowski interprets Schumann’s symphonies with great vitality and intensity in this release that celebrates the culmination of his tenure as chief conductor with the orchestra.

Marek Janowski is one of the most celebrated conductors of our time. This remarkable recording of Schumann’s complete symphonies follows 2023’s Schubert Unfinished & Great Symphonies (also with the Dresdner Philharmonie), complete recordings of Bruckner, Brahms and Beethoven’s symphonies, several works by Richard Strauss, and Wagner’s ten mature operas. From 2019 to 2023 Janowski was chief conductor and artistic director of the Dresdner Philharmonie, and also realized complete recordings of Beethoven’s Fidelio (2021), Puccini’s Il Tabarro and Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana (both 2020) with the orchestra.

On Sale

Schumann: Symphonies / Janowski, Dresdner Philharmonie

~~$32.99~~ $24.99
SACD

PENTATONE

Apr 05, 2024

PTC5186989

Gál: Das Lied Der Nacht, Op. 23 / Hotz, Osnabrucker Symphonieorchester

CPO

Available as CD

~~$36.99~~ $25.99

Apr 12, 2019

After 1933 nobody had the opportunity to hear this opera. Then the Osnabrück Music Theater rediscovered Das Lied der Nacht by Hans Gál and performed it in 2017. This late-romantic opera to a text by Karl Michael von Levetzow premiered in 1926, but since its composer was of Jewish origin, the Nazis prohibited stage productions of it. During his later years Hans Gál was doubly forgotten: as one of the many Jewish artists who were forced into exile by the Fascists and as a conservative "very-latest romanticist" pursuing paths laid out by Brahms and Richard Strauss. He himself described Das Lied der Nacht as a "dramatic ballad" symbolically representing the emotional world of a Sicilian hereditary princess destined for sovereignty. The text set in twelfth-century Palermo evokes a magical, romantic world in which Antiquity and Byzantine and Moorish elements combine to form a synthesis of rare fascination and a lyrical blend of European and Oriental culture. After the premiere at the end of May 2017, the NOZ wrote, "Fantastic music, a good libretto, a marvelous performance, an all-around successful rediscovery that the premiere audience in the Osnabrück Theater celebrated with abundant applause." Now on cpo and an absolute listening must!

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Gál: Das Lied Der Nacht, Op. 23 / Hotz, Osnabrucker Symphonieorchester

~~$36.99~~ $25.99
CD

CPO

Apr 12, 2019

555186-2

Dancing in Vienna

SOMM Recordings

Available as CD

$18.99

Aug 15, 2025

SOMM Recordings celebrates the wealth of popular concert music produced in Vienna in the 19th and early 20th centuries with a release called Dancing in Vienna, an exhilarating collection of waltzes to set your feet tapping. The Philharmonic Concert Orchestra is led by the versatile Scottish conductor, Iain Sutherland, whose previous, wide-ranging collaborations with SOMM have received enthusiastic critical response: "strong and trenchant, often exhilarating, never sentimental, " Gramophone; "getting pretty much everything right, every nuance and subtle rhythm, " Amazon USA. Einzi Stolz, widow of one of the last masters of Viennese light music, Robert Stolz, wrote to Sutherland, "You have a Viennese heart with the golden arm for Viennese music." Robert Stolz's rousing march, Greetings from Vienna, opens this collection, which also includes his Viennese Cafe Waltzes. Dominating the light music programmes of Vienna for almost a century was the Strauss family-Johann I and his three sons Johann II, Josef, and Eduard. They composed dances and conducted their own orchestras for all the grand balls and concerts almost every day of the week in Vienna, as well as all over the world. Among the works by Johann Strauss II included here is his famous Emperor Waltz, commissioned in 1889 for a state visit by Emperor Franz-Joseph I of Austria-Hungary to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. Reflecting the rise of popular Hungarian gypsy music at the time is his Salute the Magyars polka, along with the Trisch Trasch, Thunder and Lightning, and Champagne polkas, and the overture to his operetta masterpiece, Die Fledermaus. Johann II was the most famous of the family of musicians, though he once said of his younger brother, Josef Strauss, that he was "the more gifted of us two; I am merely the more popular..." From Josef Strauss we have the Chatterbox Polka, Dragonfly Polka-Mazurka, Jockey Polka (incorporating the international trumpet call marking the opening of the racing season), the Feuerfest! Polka to celebrate the Wertheim company's 200, 000th fireproof safe, and the beloved Pizzicato Polka, on which he collaborated with popular brother. The youngest of the Strauss brothers, Eduard Strauss, was better recognized as a dance music conductor than as a composer. Still, this release includes his Clear Track Polka, heralding the opening of a new railway company in 1869. Johannes Brahms greatly admired the melodic genius of Johann Strauss II. Their respect was mutual, and Strauss often included his good friend's Hungarian Dances on his programmes. This present collection includes Nos. 1, 5, and 6 from Brahms's collection of 21 dances. The lesser-known composer, author, and musical administrator Richard Heuberger is represented on this CD of Dancing in Vienna by the overture to his light opera, The Opera Ball.

Mix and Match Add these titles save more →

Dancing in Vienna

$18.99
CD

SOMM Recordings

Aug 15, 2025

SOMMCD 0708

The Chamber Music Arrangements / Linos Ensemble

Capriccio

Available as CD

$47.99

Sep 21, 2018

Founded in November 1918 by Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) and a few of his confidants, the Association for Private Musical Performances constituted perhaps the most progressive and most intensive opportunity for a select Viennese musical circle to familiarize themselves with contemporary and the latest works of the international composers’ scene in the immediate aftermath of the First World War and hence at the time of a dearth of a cultural spirit of optimism and innovation. Schoenberg had a close personal tie with many of the composers performed at the association concerts, as in the case of Zemlinsky. The association became a nursery for the entire modern music from Richard Strauss and Debussy to Webern, as far as the instrumentation of the works allowed. This release explores some of the chamber music works that came out of that association, including pieces by Bruckner, Mahler, Webern, and Schoenberg himself, among others.

-----

REVIEW:

The Linos Ensemble offer fastidiously prepared performances of fascinating repertoire in unusual arrangements. The quality of the music-making on offer transcends the historical importance of many of these reductions. Given the fact that these discs have been laid down over a twelve year period, recording standards are consistently excellent. Indeed it is a delight to be able to hear the sound of the harmonium so perfectly integrated into the texture in so many of these arrangements.

– MusicWeb International

The Chamber Music Arrangements / Linos Ensemble

$47.99
CD

Capriccio

Sep 21, 2018

C7265

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