Morale was low in Vienna after the suppression of the 1848 revolution, but Johann Strauss the Elder's celebratory ball in January 1849 provided new waltzes which 'were heard to general applause and were excellent.' This final volume of the complete Johann Strauss I edition includes the enigmatic Quadrille Without Title, and the celebration of a hero hailed alongside Radetzky in the Jelacic March. The Exeter Polka and Almack's Quadrille were an introduction to London society, while the Radetzky Banquet March was left incomplete at the time of the composer's death.

In a career that spanned a period from the 1820s until his death in 1849, the older Johann Strauss established an unrivalled position for himself among composers and performers of dance music in Vienna.

Hailed by critics at the Lucerne Festival as a modern Rachmaninov and the triumphant winner of the first Rachmaninov Competition in Moscow in 1983, Konstantin Scherbakov presents the 14th volume in Marco Polo’s Godowsky complete edition, and the first featuring selections from the 53 Studies on Chopin’s Études. Previous volumes have been critically acclaimed. In addition to recitals, orchestral performances and tours all over the world, his concert activity has brought participation in major festivals, including Salzburg, Frankfurt, Bregenz, Bodensee, Lugano, Evian and Colmar. His contribution to the Naxos Liszt piano music series includes critically acclaimed performances of Liszt's transcriptions of Beethoven's Symphonies, of which the Ninth Symphony was awarded the German Critics' Prize 2005.

The 12th volume of Konstantin Scherbakov’s ongoing Leopold Godowsky cycle primarily features shorter original works and transcriptions of German art songs. Compared to his elaborate Chopin Etudes paraphrases, Godowsky’s reworkings of songs by Schumann, Brahms, Schubert, and Böhm are relatively restrained and technically manageable, although the Strauss/Godowsky Ständchen’s intricate filigree requires, shall we say, a little practice to master it well.

As always, Scherbakov is in complete command, technically and musically. His sense of textural foreground and background particularly shines in the Six Waltz-Poems for left hand alone, while his firm articulation and rhythmic drive in the Op. 11 No. 1 Concert Study prove more interesting than the actual music. These qualities also describe Scherbakov’s bravura performance of the Weber Perpetuum Mobile, where Godowsky piles more technical hurdles on top of that composer’s already challenging First Sonata Rondo finale. In Godowsky’s hands, Weber’s Invitation to the Dance gets swallowed up into a huge contrapuntal paraphrase, packed with chromatic reharmonizations and garish inner voices. Somehow Scherbakov’s straightforward elegance and stylish poise prevent the music from sounding overloaded. Marco Polo’s engineering has measurably improved over the course of this cycle, and piano mavens will appreciate Keith Anderson’s informative booklet notes.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

4 Virtuosi Play Chinese Traditional Music: Plum Blossom Melo

ENESCU: String Octet, Op. 7 / Dixtuor for Winds, Op. 14

The music of the Strauss family is justifiably famous, but many other talented composers were producing popular music of comparable quality in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Drawn from a unique collection of original archive material compiled by The Johann Strauss Society of Great Britain, much of which has been reconstructed or orchestrated by John Georgiadis, this first volume of two presents world première recordings of works by many undeservedly forgotten central European light music composers.

This recording received a 1998 "Critic's Choice" award from Gramophone
magazine.
REVIEWS:
American Record Guide (11-12/97, p.91) - "...The Russian pianist Konstantin Sherbakov (b 1963) plays this music brilliantly, dealing easily with its technical difficulties, keeping the dense contrapuntal lines clear while providing rich bass sonorities, and making the music consistently exciting..."

Du Mingxin: Violin Concerto, The Goddess of River Luo & Autu

Tadashi Mori, the Musical Director of the Nagoya Philharmonic at the time of making this recording, was previously Chief Conductor of the Tokyo Municipal Orchestra, the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra and the Fujiwara and Niki-Kai opera companies. He taught at the famous Toho School of Music in Tokyo, an institution that has produced conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Kazuyoshi Akiyama and Hiroyuki Iwaki. Mori held the position of Music Director and Permanent Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra from 1967 to 1972, and Permanent Conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1987 before he passed away. The Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra is recognised as the leading orchestra in the Tokai region, the central part of Japan. In April 2013, British conductor Martyn Brabbins was appointed Chief Conductor. Musicians from the City of Nagoya and the surrounding area founded the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra in July 1966. The first subscription concert delighted the audience in October of 1967. Subsequently, the Orchestra received an endowment from the City of Nagoya in 1973. Over the years, the Orchestra expanded its repertoire and improved the quality of its performances under the batons of various music directors and chief conductors, namely Hiroyuki Iwaki (Music Director, 1971-73), Yoshikazu Fukumura (Chief Conductor, 1971-74), Tadashi Mori (Music Director, 1974- 80), Shunji Aratani (Chief Conductor, 1974-80), Yuzo Toyama (Music Director & Chief Conductor, 1981-87), Moshe Atzmon (Chief Conductor, 1987-93), Taijiro Iimori (Chief Conductor, 1993-98), Ken’ichiro Kobayashi (Music Director, 1998-2003), Ryusuke Numajiri (Chief Conductor, 2003-06) and Thierry Fischer (Chief Conductor, 2008-11).

Ten Xinjiang Dances for violin and orchestra, or A Xinjiang Musical Tour by Chinese composer Du Ming-xin (b. 1928) takes the folk songs and instrumental music widely popular in Xinjiang as its starting material and, retaining the regional characteristics of the originals, enriching its expressive power by means of variation and development, with the violin finding free scope for displaying its melodiousness and various techniques. Founded in 1979, the Singapore Symphony is led on this 1985 recording by Choo Hoey, its first appointed director and conductor, was appointed conductor.

DEVREESE: Symphony No. 1 / Poeme Heroique

INDY: Piano Trio and Quintet / String Quartet No. 3

Chinese Music for Flute & Harp

Contemporaries of the Strauss Family, Vol. 3