Classical music has had a few really popular stars, Puccini, Offenbach, Philip Glass, composers whose works were readily gobbled up by a waiting public the...

Classical music has had a few really popular stars, Puccini, Offenbach, Philip Glass, composers whose works were readily gobbled up by a waiting public the minute the ink was dry, but none could surpass the box office appeal of Johann Strauss Jr. For half a century the Waltz King played to sold-out houses in Austria, Europe, and America, and while demand for his memorably tuneful waltzes and polkas never ceased, neither did his capacity to supply them, with his catalog numbering more than 500.
This Naxos disc is the first of 10 volumes collecting the best material from Marco Polo's monumental series of the complete Strauss orchestral works. Each volume features two or three of the most famous hits coupled with lesser known but often no less interesting items. Here, for example, you get the overture to 'Die Fledermaus' and the 'Emperor Waltz' alongside Strauss' very first published waltz, 'Sinngedichte' and the novel 'Explosions Polka,' which employs pyrotechnic party favors. The performances, by a variety of orchestras and conductors, are consistently fine and well recorded.