J. Strauss Jr. Edition Vol 37 / Christian Pollack, Et Al
Marco Polo
Available as
CD
$19.99
Jun 20, 1994
STRAUSS II, J.: Edition - Vol. 37
J. Strauss Jr. Edition Vol 37 / Christian Pollack, Et Al
$19.99
CD
Marco Polo
Jun 20, 1994
8223237
Fiedler's Favorite Marches / Boston Pops Orchestra
Sony Masterworks
Available as
CD
$11.98
$8.99
Nov 06, 1990
The world famous conductor offers a special reissue of his 1971 RCA double-LP.
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Fiedler's Favorite Marches / Boston Pops Orchestra
$11.98
$8.99
CD
Sony Masterworks
Nov 06, 1990
607002RG
Die Fledermaus (Sung In English)
MYTO Historical
Available as
CD
$10.99
Apr 01, 2009
Strauss: Die Fledermaus (1951)
Die Fledermaus (Sung In English)
$10.99
CD
MYTO Historical
Apr 01, 2009
MYTO00253
Sullivan: The Gilbert And Sullivan Overtures / Penny, Et Al
Naxos
Available as
CD
$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.
Sullivan: The Gilbert And Sullivan Overtures / Penny, Et Al
$19.99
CD
Naxos
Jun 30, 1998
8554165
DIE FLEDERMAUS
DECCA
Available as
SACD
$91.88
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.
DIE FLEDERMAUS
$91.88
SACD
DECCA
Jan 30, 2026
DCA228537SACD
Lumbye - Festival At Tivoli / Rozhdestvensky, Et Al
Chandos
Available as
CD
$13.99
Nov 01, 2005
The Danish composer Hans Christian Lumbye came from a military background and was taught to play the violin and trumpet at an early age. In 1839 he heard the music of Johann Strauss the elder during a visit to Copenhagen made by a Viennese orchestra. This proved to be a lasting influence and one that is abundantly evident in many of the works on this disc. Though Lumbye’s music lacks a truly original voice, it is nevertheless consistently delightful listening.
The most famous piece is "Købehavns Jernbane Damp Galop" or the "Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop" – an unforgettable four minute ride. With the exception of Drømmebilleder and Amélie Vals, all the pieces given here are miniatures but these two more extended works fully justify their extra length. Lumbye could certainly write a good tune and for about thirty years he did just that for the patrons of Copenhagen’s music halls. In 1843 "Tivoli and Vauxhall", an amusement park which was opened and Lumbye became its music director, a position he held until shortly before his death.
This well-chosen program covers most of Lumbye’s career and two works reflect a sabbatical taken in St. Petersburg in 1850. There is also a Polonaise with Cornet solo which dates from fairly early in his career and for which I presume Lumbye would have taken the solo part. With Champagne Galops complete with popping corks to start and finish, the program has the feel of a New’s Year day concert with a difference.
Gennady Rozhdestvensky’s association with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra appears to have been on a guest basis. He seems a slightly surprising choice for this repertoire until you put the disc on when it rapidly becomes clear that he was enjoying himself as much as the players. The readings therefore sound completely idiomatic and they are backed up by excellent, atmospheric sound from the early 90s. The various extra musical effects (e.g. the train guard’s voice in the Steam Railway Galop) are captured most realistically. The documentation is detailed and informative with the Danish titles on the liner (as given above) being translated in the booklet.
Anyone who likes the music of the Strauss family should also try some Lumbye. There is quite a substantial series on Marco Polo (currently running to 11 volumes) but a single disc selection will suffice for most people. At mid-price this one will be very hard to beat given its all round excellence. There is a bargain price collection with an overlapping program on Regis conducted by Peter Guth and the Odense Symphony Orchestra. At least some of that I have heard in a previous incarnation and, although it was good, Rozhdestvensky’s collection is well worth a little extra money. This is a most worthwhile reissue of charm-laden music which should cheer you up on a cold winter’s day. Patrick C Waller MusicWeb International
Lumbye - Festival At Tivoli / Rozhdestvensky, Et Al
$13.99
CD
Chandos
Nov 01, 2005
CHAN 10354 X
LOVE IS ALL AROUND
DECCA
Available as
DVD
$24.11
Apr 12, 2024
Together with his joyful Johann Strauss Orchestra and numerous international soloists, Andr� Rieu celebrated a cheerful and emotional party, which ended night after night with a grand firework display. The numerous highlights on this DVD include world hits such as Ballade pour Adeline, Can't Help Falling in Love, Volare, Bolero, An der sch�nen blauen Donau and Highland Cathedral with around 300 bagpipers. The emotional highlight of the concert was the French ESC title "Voil�" sung by the extraordinary 15-year-old singer Emma Kok, who moved the audience to tears and went viral on the internet.
LOVE IS ALL AROUND
$24.11
DVD
DECCA
Apr 12, 2024
DCA144942DVD
Korngold: String Quartets 1-3, Piano Quintet Op 15 / Sigfridsson, Aron Quartett
“I feel it—and can’t comprehend it—can’t retain it—and yet can’t forget it; and if I grasp it all, I can’t measure it. … No rule would fit it, and yet there was no error in it.”
Hans Sachs’s rumination from the act II “Fliedermonolog” of Die Meistersinger is a perfect summation of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s music. At once gay yet wistful, familiar yet elusive, inviting yet unsettling, it aurally distilled all the complex contradictions of fin de siècle Vienna, preserving it for generations to come and carrying it into exile in America after the debacle of World War I. If the waltzes of Johann Strauss Jr. embody a carefree present moment, the works of Korngold preserve and nurture nostalgic memories of a lost past, ardently clinging and seeking to re-create those, that it might still dwell in them rather than an alien present.
The four works in this set, spanning almost a quarter-century from 1921 to 1945, offer refractions of those memories over a generation. The Piano Quintet and First String Quartet, composed almost simultaneously, present two decidedly different faces. The Quintet acts as if nothing has been lost; it is gay and brilliant, with unabashed romantic ardor emphasized by sweeping runs in the keyboard part. The outer movements are energetic, while the lyrical second movement employs an utterly haunting, gorgeous theme from Korngold’s song “Mond, so gehst du wieder auf” (Moon, Thus Risest Thou Again) from his op. 14 song cycle Lieder der Abschied (Songs of Farewell); once heard, it simply won’t leave one’s head. The First Quartet, by contrast, is more introspective and even melancholic at points; its backwards longing has a certain assertive determination to it. A far greater reliance on chromaticism and freer employment of spicy dissonance give it a constantly edgy, unsettled character, with an antsy, off-kilter Intermezzo and quirky Finale that includes a jaunty, almost Vaughan Williams-like march fragment as a second subject (Korngold inscribed the movement’s opening page with a quote from Shakespeare’s As You Like It).
The Second Quartet dates from the summer of 1933, near the close of a period of several years’ involvement by Korngold with operetta, and just before his first visit to Hollywood. It is a microcosm of melodic and harmonic devices that Korngold would employ so brilliantly in years to come as a composer of film scores. Given Hitler’s recent assumption of power in neighboring Germany, the first, second, and fourth movements would almost seem to be a perverse denial of reality. The opening Allegro epitomizes the skittish music of the Hollywood light romance; the Scherzo is all charming, gently smiling bustle; the Finale is, improbably, a witty, chatty waltz, but one of a decidedly un-Straussian character. All the more surprising, then, is the third-movement Larghetto, beginning with open harmonics like an icy chill (almost hinting at the Second Viennese School), eventually succeeded by a melody of melancholic yearning that seeks to cling to a wistfully remembered but unrecoverable comfort and security.
The Third Quartet dates from 1945, at a juncture in Korngold’s Hollywood exile when, dispirited by academic critical disdain and convinced his film scores were destined for oblivion, he had secretly decided to turn back to composition in more “serious” genres. Dedicated to a longtime friend and near neighbor in exile, the conductor Bruno Walter, it shows Korngold adopting a leaner, more astringent melodic and harmonic language. The melodic material is more fragmentary and questioning; the dissonances more frequent and unresolved. The scherzo has a jittery, almost neurotic character to its outer sections, as short, choppy interjections repeatedly disrupt an incipient moto perpetuo, from which a brief lyrical interlude provides only momentary relief. The slow movement bespeaks stifled grief and haunting bitterness over shattered hopes, with searing pain expressed by violins playing in the higher register as the viola and cello grind out clashing chords below. Only the finale, with its Stravinskian flavor and vigorously offbeat cascades of 16th notes, offers a somewhat hesitantly upbeat finale.
The only other complete set of the quartets is by the Flesch Quartet, originally recorded for ASV and now available on a budget reissue from Brilliant Classics. In Fanfare 23:2 Martin Anderson had high praise for its rendition of the Third Quartet and Sextet (the filler there instead of the Piano Quintet here). If those performances were more competitive, the budget price would tilt a recommendation toward the older set. However, the new cpo set completely outclasses its predecessor at every level, both interpretively and sonically. The Aron Quartet plays with immaculate ensemble and intonation, with far richer tone and irresistible zest and tenderness; the Flesch ensemble is almost lethargic in comparison, with its overall timings averaging almost 15 percent slower. (For example, the respective timings for the First Quartet movements are 7:26, 7:41, 4:42, and 8:07 vs. 8:47, 9: 56, 4:37, and 9:09.) Although its spirit may be willing, the Flesch is relatively weak. Henri Sigfridsson is a perfect teammate for the Aron players in the Quintet, which is likewise far ahead of rival versions such as the uninspired Marco Polo recording. The recorded sound is exemplary in every way. One complaint: This is shockingly short timing for a two-CD set. There is no reason that all three quartets could not have been put on a single CD, and another work such as the Piano Quartet included on the second disc. Nevertheless, this album is a stellar contribution to the ongoing and much needed Korngold renaissance, and is urgently recommended for all devotees of that once unjustly maligned but now belatedly appreciated master of late Romanticism.
FANFARE: James A. Altena
Korngold: String Quartets 1-3, Piano Quintet Op 15 / Sigfridsson, Aron Quartett
$36.99
CD
CPO
Jan 26, 2010
777436-2
COMPLETE DECCA RECORDINGS
ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA
Available as
CD
$79.60
Nov 26, 2021
The most comprehensive collection ever issued of Clemens Krauss's commercial legacy of recordings, newly remastered and presented as an original jackets limited edition. In Mark Obert-Thorn's new remasterings for this Eloquence box set, we can appreciate anew the genius for colour, pacing and timing which made Clemens Krauss the unrivalled conductor of his day in the music of Johann and Richard Strauss. He began recording for Decca in 1947 - three sessions of Brahms in London including a famous account of the Alto Rhapsody which found Kathleen Ferrier in glorious voice - allowing for less than eight years of activity in the studio before the conductor's untimely death from a heart attack in May 1954, hours after conducting a concert in Mexico City. In that time, however, Decca secured Krauss in much of the repertoire for which he was renowned as a peerless interpreter. A Richard Strauss series captured all the major symphonic poems except the Alpine Symphony, plus a complete Salome with Christel Goltz, and, for Polydor (Deutsche Grammophon) the rapturous final Trio from Der Rosenkavalier recorded in pre-war Berlin with his wife, the soprano Viorica Ursuleac, as the Marschallin. Unlike many later recordings, these are not performances which pull out the modernist strands in Strauss's form and harmony. Rather they place the composer in a lineage of lyricists and musical dramatists stretching back to Mozart. Strauss himself apparently regarded Krauss as the supreme conductor of his generation, supporting the younger man's rise to a succession of top jobs of 1930s and 40s Austria and Germany. During the war, Krauss founded the tradition of New Year's Day concerts in Vienna, and Decca capitalised on their popularity with three albums which have become touchstones of interpretation in the music of the Strauss family - 'by turns committed and distanced, never pasteurized or bent on proving anything', as Carlos Kleiber remarked of the Decca recording of Die Fledermaus, which became a library choice for the work as soon as it was released in January 1951. The trio of Beethoven concertos with Backhaus has also been a perennial favourite among collectors; much less familiar is the album of Leonore/Fidelio overtures which marked the premature end to Krauss's Decca career, charged with visceral intensity and elevated by needle-point rhythmic detail. Sleeves feature the original Decca covers and the booklet includes a survey of Krauss's remarkable life and times by Peter Quantrill.
COMPLETE DECCA RECORDINGS
$79.60
CD
ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA
Nov 26, 2021
ELOA841704.2
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: A Centenary Tribute
SOMM Recordings
Available as
CD
$29.99
May 16, 2025
SOMM Recordings is proud to mark the centenary of the legendary German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (28 May 1925-18 May 2012) by adding to his canonical discography with live recital and concert recordings from the Music Preserved archive. Fischer-Dieskau was at the very height of his powers from 1960-75, and the performances on this album date from that period. A bonus CD contains two interviews conducted by Jon Tolansky-appearing here in their entirety for the first time-the 75th Birthday Interview (2000) and 80th Birthday Interview (2005). The extraordinarily vast repertoire of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau over his 45-year career comprised�lieder, operas,�cantatas,�and�oratorios.�He sang these in German, Italian, French, Russian, English, Hebrew, Hungarian, and Latin, from eras that spanned the Baroque to the latter part of the 20th century. Particularly, it was the controlled power and beauty of his voice, and the dramatic intensity and poetry of his interpretations, that led him to excel in the genre of German�lieder.�In this form he exerted a virtually unprecedented stylistic and interpretative influence-not only on the musical world of his day, but also on generations of performers to come. SOMM's centenary tribute opens with four songs by Ferruccio Busoni, all being works that were written late in the composer's career. They come from a programme that Fischer-Dieskau gave with Gerald Moore in 1962.� At the 1971 Helsinki Festival, Fischer-Dieskau presented a recital with Irwin Gage, which was devoted entirely to songs with texts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The recital, described by a contemporary critic as "a landmark event," featured compositions by contemporaries of Goethe, who lived from 1749 to 1832, such as the Countess Anna Amalia, Kapellmeister Johann Friedrich Reichardt, and Goethe's friend Carl Friedrich Zelter. The more familiar composers represented on this Goethe-inspired recital were active during the first part of the 20th century. They include Richard Strauss, Max Reger, and Ferruccio Busoni. This tribute to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau also includes six songs from a programme of works by Gustav Mahler, which was presented with his long-time collaborator, Karl Engel. Three of the songs are from Des Knaben Wunderhorn,�based on texts of German folk poems, and three are from the collection of five Ruckert-Lieder,�after poems written by�Friedrich Ruckert. The musical component of this collection closes with a concert performance of three songs by Zoltan Kodaly, sung in Hungarian by Fischer-Dieskau. The composer proves himself an outstanding interpreter of his own music in conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. In the two interviews included on the bonus CD, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau discusses his early years, his teachers, the development of his career, and a small but revealing cross-section of his enormous repertoire.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: A Centenary Tribute
$29.99
CD
SOMM Recordings
May 16, 2025
ARIADNE 5038-2
Wolfgang Sawallisch: Complete Symphonic, Lieder & Choral Recordings - Warner Classics Edition, Vol. 1
WARNER CLASSICS
Available as
CD
$200.17
Aug 09, 2024
For five decades Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) held a central position in the musical world. That centrality was reflected in a series of top orchestral and operatic posts and in his interpretations, free of self-regarding eccentricities. His modest but highly effective conducting technique also made him the ideal recording artist. Sawallisch was a Bavarian born in Munich, city of orchestras and a great opera company, which he headed for 21 years. He started his career as an outstanding pianist and remained a sought-after accompanist to great Lieder singers and instrumentalists. Volume 1 of a complete conspectus of his Warner Classics recordings (made for Electrola and EMI Classics between 1954 to 1997) includes wonderful Lieder and song collaborations, as well as famous concerto accompaniments for eminent soloists and a heartwarming traversal of Schubert's secular vocal and sacred choral music with Bavarian Radio colleagues. But the main focus among the 65 discs is on his symphonic achievements: Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner and Dvor�k - the latter's Eighth Symphony was his first published recording, from 1954. Richard Strauss, an early influence, is strongly represented. This 65CD-box brings together all the non-operatic recordings that the German conductor and pianist Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) made in the years from 1954 to 1997 for EMI Classics and Electrola (now Warner Classics).
Wolfgang Sawallisch: Complete Symphonic, Lieder & Choral Recordings - Warner Classics Edition, Vol. 1
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