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Idil Biret Archive Edition, Vol. 21 - Waltzes & Dances

Idil Biret Archive

$19.99 Dec 06, 2024

Idil Biret wanted to record the many waltz transcriptions of Godowsky and others. Chief among these was the transcription of the Johann Strauss' waltz Kiinstlerleben by Godowsky which she had performed at many concerts in the l 970s and the Blue Danube Waltz. However, there was another project scheduled before that; four Haydn Sonatas, some of the most beautiful among the many he composed. When Idil suddenly fell ill in 2021 both projects were abandoned. Then, miraculously a stupendous recording of her performance of Kiinstlerleben in New York in December 1975 surfaced on the internet which led to reembarking on the project in a somewhat different way. The result is this CD, a compilation of Biret's past performances of Waltzes and Dances from many composers including Bartok, Berlioz, Chopin, Debussy, Liszt, Ravel, Stravinsky and, of course, Leopold Godowsky - his piano transcription of the Strauss waltz Kiinstlerleben "Metamorphosis on Themes from Artist's Life"

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Idil Biret Archive Edition, Vol. 21 - Waltzes & Dances
Idil Biret Archive Dec 2024
CD
$19.99

DIE FLEDERMAUS

DECCA

SACD

$91.99 Jan 30, 2026

One of the jewels of Decca's unrivalled opera catalog, Herbert von Karajan's classic 1960 'Die Fledermaus' returns to celebrate the bicentenary of Johann Strauss. A Viennese cast in excelsis: Hilde Gueden, Erika Koth, Walter Berry, Erich Kunz and the Wiener Philharmoniker. Presented in it's original format with the Gala Sequence of guest artists including Renata Tebaldi, Jussi Bjorling, Leontyne Price, Birgit Nilsson, Teresa Berganza, Fernando Corena, Mario del Monaco, and Joan Sutherlan. Newly remastered from the original stereo master tapes at 24 bit / 192kHz. Deluxe packaging with a facsimile of the original booklet. Hybrid SACD 2-Disc Edition: presenting 24-bit audio. Rigid slipcases with hardback coffee table book. Limited Edition.

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DIE FLEDERMAUS
DECCA Jan 2026
SACD
$91.99

Sullivan: The Gilbert And Sullivan Overtures / Penny, Et Al

Naxos

$19.99 Jun 30, 1998

The names of William Schwenck Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan are fused when speaking of their collaboration on a series of operettas. It is almost impossible to consider the music of Arthur Sullivan on its own terms without thinking of Gilbert. This is unfortunate because Sullivan was a fine composer of serious music and wrote oratorios, hymns and large orchestral works that have been neglected. This collection of overtures puts Sullivan in the spotlight and his music rises to the occasion.
The Sullivan overtures on this recording are curtain raisers for the most beloved of the operettas written with W.S. Gilbert. Each and every one is a delight and filled with the jaunty melodies that make the operettas so charming. Sullivan was a clever orchestrator and the overtures are colorful and filled with exuberant energy. The Royal Ballet Sinfonia under the direction of Andrew Penny deliver loving performances. This is an ideal recording for lovers of the overtures of Rossini and waltzes of Johann Strauss.

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Sullivan: The Gilbert And Sullivan Overtures / Penny, Et Al
Naxos Jun 1998
CD
$19.99

A Lifetime on Chandos / Neeme Järvi

Chandos

$131.99 Sep 14, 2018

Almost forty years after his first recording on Chandos, this unique limited-edition release gathers some of the best and most-awarded recordings on the label by one of the most prolific conductors of all time: Neeme Järvi. It highlights a 200+ discography that explores an astonishingly wide repertoire, with selections from the legendary complete series of Prokofiev’s symphonies and Tchaikovsky’s ballets to the groundbreaking discoveries of composers such as Atterberg or Suchon. It features nearly a dozen of the numerous orchestras with which he has collaborated, including the RSNO, Chicago Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, all here celebrated at their best. Offered at a very special price and retaining the original covers, this product also includes very special notes by James Jolly, Editor in Chief of Gramophone, as well as exclusive photos and interviews with figures central to Järvi’s extraordinary musical life.

Past praise of previously released material included in this set:

Prokofiev: Symphony No 6, Waltzes Suite / Järvi, SNO

As in all of his Prokofiev symphony recordings–this was the first, by the way–Järvi really digs into the music. The engineering is as big and bold as the performances. This recording deserves classic status.

– ClassicsToday

Smetana: Má Vlast / Järvi, Detroit Symphony

Järvi and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra deliver an expansive reading of the complete work, and their feeling for the music's vivid imagery and richly Romantic expression is spot on.

– All Music Guide

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A Lifetime on Chandos / Neeme Järvi
Chandos Sep 2018
CD
$131.99

Ashton Celebration / (Blu-ray Disc)

Opus Arte

Blu-Ray

$39.99 Oct 29, 2013

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

Also available on standard DVD

La Valse

Hikaru Kobayashi
Ryoichi Hirano
Samantha Raine
Bennet Gartside
Helen Crawford
Brian Maloney

Music:
Maurice Ravel: La Valse

Meditation from Thaïs

Leanne Benjamin
Valeri Hristov

Music:
Jules Massenet: Thaïs, Act II: Meditation

Voices of Spring

Yuhui Choe
Alexander Campbell

Music:
Johann Strauss: Fruhlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring), Op. 410

Monotones I and II

Emma Maguire
Akane Takada
Dawid Trzensimiech
Marianela Nuñez
Federico Bonelli
Edward Watson

Music:
Erik Satie: Gnoissienes and Gymnopedies

Marguerite and Armand

Tamara Rojo
Christopher Saunders
Sergei Polunin
Gary Avis

Music: Franz Liszt: Piano Sonata in B Minor, S178/R21

The Royal Ballet
Royal Opera House Orchestra
Emmanuel Plasson, conductor

Frederick Ashton, choreographer

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, February 2013

Bonus:
- Introduction to Voices of Spring, Meditation, Monotones and The Ashton Foundation

---

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English
Running time: 97 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

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Ashton Celebration / (Blu-ray Disc)
Opus Arte Oct 2013
Blu-Ray
$39.99

DIE FLEDERMAUS

DECCA

Vinyl

$102.49 Jan 30, 2026

One of the jewels of Decca's unrivalled opera catalog, Herbert von Karajan's classic 1960 'Die Fledermaus' returns to celebrate the bicentenary of Johann Strauss. A Viennese cast in excelsis: Hilde Gueden, Erika Koth, Walter Berry, Erich Kunz and the Wiener Philharmoniker. Presented in it's original format with the Gala Sequence of guest artists including Renata Tebaldi, Jussi Bjorling, Leontyne Price, Birgit Nilsson, Teresa Berganza, Fernando Corena, Mario del Monaco, and Joan Sutherlan. Newly remastered from the original stereo master tapes at 24 bit / 192kHz. Deluxe packaging with a facsimile of the original booklet. This 3 LP set is pressed on 180g vinyl with poly-lined inner sleeves and cut at Abbey Road Studios. Packaged in rigid slipcase with hardback coffee table book. Limited Edition.

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DIE FLEDERMAUS
DECCA Jan 2026
Vinyl
$102.49

Offenbach: La Perichole / Theis, Brohm, Simon, Konnes, Gunzel

CPO

$36.99 Oct 29, 2013

CPO’s series featuring productions by the Dresden State Operetta has quickly gained renown with its discoveries of unknown works by Johann Strauss. When the same theater presented an extremely successful new production of Jacques Offenbach’s rarely staged La Périchole during the 2008 season, cpo immediately decided to produce this masterpiece in the studio. The State Operetta had commissioned the cabaret performer and author Peter Ensikat to supply a new translation, and it was with superb wit that he accomplished the task of updating the satirical double meanings in Offenbach’s libretto and the references to current events of the composer’s times without losing the charm of the original. In musical matters the production oriented itself by the three-act second version of this masterpiece set in faraway Lima; it was written for Vienna in 1874 and is filled to overflowing with original melodies. CPO included the numbers written especially for Vienna and its then operetta diva Marie Geistinger as special bonuses. The result: an all-around successful operetta production and spirited listening fun!

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Offenbach: La Perichole / Theis, Brohm, Simon, Konnes, Gunzel
CPO Oct 2013
CD
$36.99

The Cleveland Orchestra Centennial Celebration [Blu-ray]

Belvedere Edition

Blu-Ray

$13.49 ~~$26.99~~ Save 50% Feb 08, 2019

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

Also available on standard DVD

Franz Welser-Möst has conducted The Cleveland Orchestra in a series of acclaimed video and audio productions, further enhancing the ensemble’s storied recorded legacy. At the Anniversary Gala on September 29, 2018, documented in the present video recording, he programmed works touching on more than a century of Viennese musical traditions. Opening with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24, featuring soloist Lang Lang, a regular collaborator with the orchestra since 2000, it also includes works by Richard and Johann Strauss, concluding with Ravel’s cataclysmic La Valse. The Cleveland Orchestra was founded in 1918. Over the ensuing decades, the Orchestra quickly grew from a fine regional organization to being one of the most admired symphony orchestras in the world. Seven music directors have guided and shaped the ensemble’s growth and sound: Nikolai Sokoloff, Artur Rodzinski, Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Franz Welser-Möst. The opening in 1931 of Severance Hall as the Orchestra’s permanent home brought a special pride to the ensemble and its hometown, as well as providing an enviable and intimate acoustic environment in which to develop and refine the Orchestra’s artistry. Touring performances throughout the United States and, beginning in 1957, to Europe and across the globe have confirmed Cleveland’s place among the world’s top orchestras. For this anniversary concert, The Cleveland Orchestra will be joined by none less than world famous pianist Lang Lang. Heralded by the New York times as “the hottest artist on the classical music planet,” Lang Lang works with many of the best classical musicians of our time. He first appeared with The Cleveland Orchestra in 2000.

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The Cleveland Orchestra Centennial Celebration [Blu-ray]
Belvedere Edition Feb 2019
Blu-Ray
~~$26.99~~ $13.49

New Year's Concert 2016 / Mariss Jansons, Vienna Philharmonic

Sony Masterworks

$16.98 Jan 08, 2016

Since 1939, the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert has become a tradition and the world’s most famous classical music event. The list of names of leading conductors who have led the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concerts reads like a veritable who’s who of great maestros: Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado and Riccardo Muti to name a few. For the New Year’s Concert 2016 world-renowned conductor Mariss Jansons returns to the podium for the third time for this extraordinary event. Ever since their first concert together in 1992, Mariss Jansons has belonged to the circle of conductors with whom the Vienna Philharmonic feels a special bond. His first New Year’s Concert in 2006 was widely acclaimed by both audiences and the media. Jansons won a Grammy Award® in 2006 for Best Orchestral Performance and ECHO Klassik honored him in 2007 as Conductor of the Year.

The Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert is unique and has often been imitated, but not equaled, with a live broadcast on television in over 90 countries around the world with over 40 million viewers. PBS aired the 2015 concert on over 181 stations and will broadcast the 2016 concert nationally. The repertoire for the New Year’s Concert features works by members of the Strauss Family – Johann Strauss, father and son, as well as Eduard and Josef Strauss. Old favorites from their works are played alongside others that have never been recorded or are rarely heard. All of them programmed around two fixed points in the concert, The Blue Danube Waltz and the Radetzky March.

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New Year's Concert 2016 / Mariss Jansons, Vienna Philharmonic
Sony Masterworks Jan 2016
CD
$16.98

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON RECORDINGS

ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA

$89.99 Dec 05, 2025

A portrait of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players through the 1970s, through their complete recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and Philips. This diverse range of repertoire receives luxury treatment from the musicians, always centered in beauty of tone and with the kind of joyful freedom of phrasing which world-class orchestral musicians produce when liberated from the authority of a baton. The Boston Symphony Chamber Players were created in 1964, to play at the Tanglewood Festival before the 'main event' of the Boston Symphony's concerts. Before long, the BSCP became the main event themselves, with a programme of concerts throughout the year, and a busy recording schedule. When the Boston Symphony Orchestra began to record with DG in 1970, so did the Chamber Players. Violinist Joseph Silverstein, cellist Jules Eskin and flautist Doriot Anthony Dwyer all take starring roles on an album of late chamber music by Claude Debussy, and a new booklet essay by Peter Quantrill outlines the importance of these three superb musicians to the profile and the identity of the BSCP. As led by Silverstein, the repertoire of the BSCP also reflects the inclusive nature of the main orchestra's programming. There is high modernism, in an album of modern American chamber music by Ives, Carter and Porter. There is classic modernism, in immaculately prepared accounts of landmark works by Stravinsky and Schoenberg. There are core Romantic classics such as a Dvorak string quintet and the Clarinet Quintet by Brahms. Then there are delicious rarities such as chamber-scale arrangements of Johann Strauss waltzes. This diverse range of repertoire receives luxury treatment from the musicians of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, always centred in beauty of tone and the kind of joyful freedom of phrasing which world-class orchestral musicians produce when liberated from the authority of a baton. Coming to a close with a glorious pairing of the clarinet quintets of Mozart and Brahms from 1993, led on Philips by the veteran clarinettist Harold Wright, this collection of 'Original Jacket' albums rewards lovers of chamber music with playing of consistent vitality and refinement.

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DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON RECORDINGS
ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA Dec 2025
CD
$89.99

Thomas Jensen Legacy, Vol. 7 / Jensen, Tivoli Concert Orchestra, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Danacord

$18.99 Jan 21, 2022

A magical evening at the Tivoli Gardens! This new compilation features live and studio recordings of light orchestral waltzes and polkas, including the greatest hits of the Danish 'Waltz King', HC Lumbye. Several studio recordings from the 1940s receive their first release on album. Album 2 features a previously unpublished live concert broadcast direct from the Tivoli Gardens, where the people of Copenhagen have enjoyed relaxation and entertainment ever since 1843. Thomas Jensen directs the Tivoli orchestra with the same authority he brought to his classic recordings of Nielsen and Sibelius.

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Thomas Jensen Legacy, Vol. 7 / Jensen, Tivoli Concert Orchestra, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Danacord Jan 2022
CD
$18.99

Millöcker: Walzes, Marches & Polkas / Simonis, Nurnberger Symphoniker

CPO

$18.99 Nov 03, 2017

Previous albums have featured electrifying marches, sparkling polkas, and yearning waltzes by Benjamin Bilse and Richard Ellenberg, the conductor Christian Simonis – this time with the Nuremberg Symphony – now presents peppy popular pieces by Carl Millöcker, who was born in Vienna in 1842. In the context of the Viennese operetta of the nineteenth century, the composer and theater conductor Millöcker is usually mentioned together with the younger Johann Strauss and Franz von Suppé, and he certainly numbers among the most important creative personalities of the »Golden Years« of the Viennese operetta era. His musical oeuvre comprises some 110 stage works (operettas, singspiels, music for farcical comedies – and more), numerous piano compositions, some ninety songs, music for orchestra (waltzes, polkas, marches), choral works, and chamber music. At the time the customary practice was to arrange the best and most beloved melodies from stage works as dance music, as waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and marches, and such was also the case with Millöcker’s music, including the “Sonntagskind-Walzer.” Its formal design is like the one known to us from the Strauss waltzes of this period. After a lavish introduction a series of four waltzes is presented; then a lengthy coda follows in the manner of a reminiscence.

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Millöcker: Walzes, Marches & Polkas / Simonis, Nurnberger Symphoniker
CPO Nov 2017
CD
$18.99

HAPPY DAYS

ANDRE RIEU

$15.70 Dec 13, 2019

2019 release. Happy Days celebrates Andre Rieu's amazing career on the occasion of his 70th birthday on October 1. A selection of 20 world famous tunes includes "Second Waltz," "I Could Have Danced All Night" (from My Fair Lady), "Love Unspoken" (from The Merry Widow) and "Happy Days are Here Again." This deluxe album will be accompanied by a Best of DVD from Vienna with Andre explaining the songs he picked for this album.

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HAPPY DAYS
ANDRE RIEU Dec 2019
CD
$15.70

Puccini: La Fanciulla del West / Foster, Transylvania State Philharmonic

PENTATONE

SACD

$32.99 Feb 05, 2021

Lawrence Foster conducts Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West (1910), together with the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, Cluj-Napoca and a cast of seasoned Puccini singers, including Melody Moore (Minnie), Marius Vlad (Dick Johnson) and Lester Lynch (Jack Rance). Puccini’s “Spaghetti Western” is not only an exploration of the New World, with the delightfully charismatic saloon owner Minnie running the show, but equally of new music; a pioneering work full of harmonic innovation and state-of-the-art orchestration effects. The depth of the orchestration, as well as of the various ensemble scenes that are characteristic of the opera, fully comes to life in this studio recording. Lawrence Foster has a vast PENTATONE discography, including operettas and operas such as Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus (2018) and Der Zigeunerbaron (2016), as well as Verdi’s Otello (2017). The latter album features Melody Moore and Lester Lynch, who have also starred in recordings of Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Puccini’s Il Tabarro (both 2020). Marius Vlad and the Transylvania State Philharmonic and Choir, Cluj Navoca make their PENTATONE debut.

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Puccini: La Fanciulla del West / Foster, Transylvania State Philharmonic
PENTATONE Feb 2021
SACD
$32.99

Weigl: Symphony No 6, Old Vienna / Sanderling, Francis

BIS

$21.99 Nov 01, 2005

In 2002 we released the first recording of Karl Weigl's (1881-1949) Fifth Symphony, subtitled 'The Apocalyptic' and dedicated it to the memory of Franklin Roosevelt. Completed in the last year of the Second World War, it is a programmatic work describing the world hovering on the brink of total destruction - a very natural way of seeing things for an Austrian refugee of Jewish decent living in the US during that troubled time. But there was more than the destiny of his beloved Vienna that occupied Weigl. He was very much part of an old central-European tradition, the tradition of Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler, which - as he must have realized - was threatened by whatever the outcome of the war. Described by his fellow student Schoenberg as 'one of the best composers of the old school, one of those who continued the glittering Viennese tradition', Weigl in one of the first works written after his flight to the US in 1938, celebrates one aspect of his native city: the waltzes of the Strauss family. In 'Old Vienna' we get a rhapsody of Vienna-style waltzes, executed with the affection - and nostalgia - of someone who had been present at the time. (Weigl was a regular guest at the soirées of Adèle Strauss, widow of Johann Strauss II, in whose home he met his first wife.) Compared to this work and to the Apocalyptic Symphony, the 'Sixth Symphony', composed eight years later and Weigl's last major work, is a piece of absolute music. But here too, in the music itself, is a testament to the tradition that for political and aesthetic reasons had already become a memory in the old world that had fostered it. Neither of the works was performed in the composer's lifetime, and in fact the Symphony had to wait until the present recording. The previous Weigl release on BIS (CD1077) was greeted with a 2003 Cannes Classical Award and great acclaim by reviewers who called Weigl 'a fascinating voice' and 'a major discovery' while naming the performances, by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Tomas Sanderling, 'exceptional' and 'committed'. The ones on the present disc - on which conductor Alun Francis also appears - certainly are no less!

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Weigl: Symphony No 6, Old Vienna / Sanderling, Francis
BIS Nov 2005
CD
$21.99

Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire / Patricia Kopatchinskaja

Alpha

$20.99 Apr 09, 2021

Pierrot lunaire, premiered in Berlin in 1912, is a series of twenty-one short melodramas for voice and five instruments on German translations of poems by Albert Giraud. Here the composer first introduces Sprechgesang (speech-song), a technique that revolutionised declamation. Schoenberg wanted the piece to be ironic, at once tender and grotesque, in the manner of cabaret songs. Patricia Kopatchinskaja, the violinist who is also an occasional actress, had long dreamt of playing and reciting this unique work. It was a pain in her arm preventing her from playing the violin that one day propelled her into the role of narrator: ‘All my life I have felt that I was Pierrot. Every time I played this piece on the violin when I was a student, I would say the words in my head.’ She has now played and performed Pierrot in many venues around the world, including the Berlin Philharmonie, several cities in the United States, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden. Now she has assembled a number of her musician friends and decided to record it for posterity. Schoenberg’s Phantasy op.47 and Six Little Piano Pieces op.19 complete the programme, along with works by Webern (Four Pieces for violin and piano op.7) and Schoenberg’s arrangement of Johann Strauss’s Kaiser-Walzer (Emperor Waltz) op.437.

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Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire / Patricia Kopatchinskaja
Alpha Apr 2021
CD
$20.99

New Year's Concert 2019 / Thielemann, Vienna Philharmonic

Sony Masterworks

$13.98 Jan 25, 2019

There are few concerts in the world that are awaited with as much excitement as the New Year’s Concert from Vienna. Under the direction of Christian Thielemann, the Vienna Philharmonic ushers in the New Year with a concert in the magnificent Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein.

The concert is relayed to over ninety countries all round the world, reaching an audience of more than fifty million.

The 2019 New Year’s Concert will be conducted for the first time by Christian Thielemann. A native of Berlin, Thielemann has been a regular and welcome guest of the Vienna Philharmonic since 2000, with the result that his first New Year’s Concert may be seen as setting an example and providing an appropriate tribute to his previous work with the orchestra. According to the orchestra’s chairman, Daniel Froschauer, orchestra and musicians trust each other completely: “The profound musical understanding and trust that have existed from the outset and that have always functioned perfectly have subsequently borne remarkable fruit in the symphonic repertory as well.”

Among the works that will be heard at the 2019 New Year’s Concert is the Transactions Waltz by Josef Strauß. Its title could serve as a motto for the 150th anniversary of the start of diplomatic relations between Austria and Japan. Since 1987 the New Year’s Concert has been shown live on Japanese television. Among the works by Johann Strauß that Christian Thielemann is conducting are his Express Polka, his waltz Pictures of the North Sea, excerpts from his only fully-fledged opera, Knight Pázmán, and the overture to The Gypsy Baron. In addition to works by other members of the Strauß family, the concert also features music by Josef Hellmesberger (ii) and Carl Michael Ziehrer.

The tradition of presenting New Year’s Concerts began in 1941. The first concert marking the New Year was given in 1939, albeit on 31 December. The first conductor was Clemens Krauss. Willi Boskovsky took over in 1955 and conducted no fewer than twenty-five New Year’s Concerts between then and 1979. The list of musicians who have conducted New Year’s Concerts reads like a who’s who of leading maestros. The New Year’s Concert was first broadcast live on television in 1959. The Vienna Philharmonic regards this now traditional event as a way of wishing the world a Happy New Year through the medium of music in a spirit of hope, friendship and peace.

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New Year's Concert 2019 / Thielemann, Vienna Philharmonic
Sony Masterworks Jan 2019
CD
$13.98

DANCE FANTASIES

Antes Edition

$24.99 Jul 14, 2017

Great piano composers did not confine themselves to writing piano sonatas. Many of them wrote dances, too: minuets, sarabandes, gavottes and particularly waltzes. The tradition of great composers writing and arranging dances starts with Bach and Rameau, encompasses Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and Tchaikovsky and ends with Maurice Ravel, Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, whose Waltz No. 2 is regularly played on German classical radio stations. The only problem was that these dances were too easy for the virtuoso pianists, which is why some of these artists turned unassuming minuets waltzes and polkas into glittering virtuosic pieces which could be played only by professional pianists. One of the greatest pianists of all time was also a great arranger of music, Leopold Godowsky. This American virtuoso of Polish extraction arranged hundreds of pieces by other composers, especially works by Chopin and the waltz king Johann Strauss, and turned them into sparkling studies and encores, that test the technique and stamina of even the most accomplished player. The Viennese pianist and Beethoven pupil Carl Czerny, for generations the specter of all piano students and today remembered for his etudes, is also the composer of a charming arrangement of Franz Schubert’s bittersweet mourning waltz. Catherine Gordeladze, a native of Tiflis, Georgia, today lives and works out of Frankfurt, Germany. Ms. Gordeladze studied the piano in her native Georgia, Frankfurt and Weimar and is the winner of prestigious prizes and competitions. She has been playing with renowned orchestras in major concert venues all over the world. The artist gives piano recitals in many countries and is also much sought after as a chamber music partner. In her award-winning albums, which have been praised by critics and the public alike, the pianist concentrates on challenging virtuoso pieces apart from the mainstream repertoire.

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DANCE FANTASIES
Antes Edition Jul 2017
CD
$24.99

The Cleveland Orchestra Centennial Celebration (1918-2018)

Belvedere Edition

DVD

$26.99 Feb 08, 2019

Franz Welser-Möst has conducted The Cleveland Orchestra in a series of acclaimed video and audio productions, further enhancing the ensemble's storied recorded legacy. At the Anniversary Gala on September 29, 2018, documented in the present video recording, he programmed works touching on more than a century of Viennese musical traditions. Opening with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24, featuring soloist Lang Lang, a regular collaborator with the orchestra since 2000, it also includes works by Richard and Johann Strauss, concluding with Ravel's cataclysmic La Valse. The Cleveland Orchestra was founded in 1918. Over the ensuing decades, the Orchestra quickly grew from a fine regional organization to being one of the most admired symphony orchestras in the world. Seven music directors have guided and shaped the ensemble's growth and sound: Nikolai Sokoloff, Artur Rodzinski, Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Franz Welser-Möst. The opening in 1931 of Severance Hall as the Orchestra's permanent home brought a special pride to the ensemble and it's hometown, as well as providing an enviable and intimate acoustic environment in which to develop and refine the Orchestra's artistry. Touring performances throughout the United States and, beginning in 1957, to Europe and across the globe have confirmed Cleveland's place among the world's top orchestras. For this anniversary concert, The Cleveland Orchestra will be joined by none less than world famous pianist Lang Lang. Heralded by the New York times as "the hottest artist on the classical music planet, " Lang Lang works with many of the best classical musicians of our time. He first appeared with The Cleveland Orchestra in 2000.

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The Cleveland Orchestra Centennial Celebration (1918-2018)
Belvedere Edition Feb 2019
DVD
$26.99

Bilse: Waltzes, Marches, Polkas / Simonis, Cologne West German Radio SO

CPO

$18.99 Oct 28, 2008

BILSE Sturmmarsch Galopp. Baumgartenallee Polka. Marienwalzer. Nur mit Dir. Schlesische Lieder. Catharina Quadrille. Die Fürstensteiner. Mit Bomben und Granaten. Winterflocken Galopp. Victoria Walzer. Königspolonaise. Die Provinzialen. Concerthaus Polka. Schützenmarsch • Christian Simonis, cond; Cologne West German RSO • cpo 777 341 (72:10)

You’ve got to hand it to cpo. I don’t know where they come up with these obscure Romantic composers, but here’s another one. The long-lived, Silesian-born Benjamin Bilse (1816–1902) was known in his time interchangeably as the “Hungarian Strauss,” the “Bohemian Strauss,” and the “Danish Strauss.” A native of Liegnitz, Bilse became steeped in the folk music of Poland and Silesia, founding the Bilse Orchestra in 1842. As was not uncommon for small-town musicians of the time, Bilse was proficient on many instruments and pretty much taught himself composition by studying and conducting the works of contemporaries and peers.

If the foregoing paints Bilse as a provincial, backcountry bandleader, the impression is a false one. By the 1860s, we find him in Berlin, a highly popular composer and presenter of public concerts, an important impresario of musical events, and a hardworking organizer of music societies and organizations. He is even credited with having played a significant role in the establishment of the Berlin Philharmonic.

As a composer, Bilse’s ambitions seemed to be more modest. Like the Danish waltz king, Christian Lumbye, the Austrian Joseph Lanner, the French Waldteufel, and the Austrian Strauss clan, Bilse contented himself with writing waltzes, polkas, and marches for the entertainment of mass audiences. And while such works may have been aimed at satisfying popular tastes, they were superbly crafted—some of them miniature masterpieces—and the ensembles assembled to perform them were of the highest professional caliber.

This is feel-good music. If you love a good John Philip Sousa march, you will joyously feather-dust your furniture to Bilse’s Mit Bomben und Granaten (“With Bombs and Grenades”) and Swiffer your floors to the Sturmmarsch Galopp . My sense is that unlike the waltzes of Johann Strauss II, Bilse’s waltz and polka numbers, such as the Victoria Walzer and the Concert House Polka , were less intended to be actually danced to than they were intended to be listened to as stylized, self-sustaining concert pieces. Of their type, these are masterfully written works, highly polished, handsomely scored with an ear for instrumental color, and tremendously engaging.

Based on the milieu of composers to which Bilse belonged and the musical genre to which he contributed, you will know whether this sort of thing appeals to you or not. If so, I can tell you that the performances and the recording are top drawer, and I, personally, haven’t had so much plain old fun listening to a CD in quite some time. Strongly recommended.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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Bilse: Waltzes, Marches, Polkas / Simonis, Cologne West German Radio SO
CPO Oct 2008
CD
$18.99