Music has its miraculous bodies of work, Bach's cantatas, Schubert's songs, Scarlatti's sonatas and here, for your consideration, the waltzes of Johann Strauss Jr. Much admired by serious composers such as Brahms and Schoenberg, this is "light" music not to be taken lightly, with a wealth of melodic invention wedded to an inimitable sense of charm and fantasy that runs through much of the roster of more than 500 waltzes, marches and polkas.
The Marco Polo label has undertaken the massive and unprecedented project of recording Strauss's entire orchestral output, and now Naxos is offering the highlights on 10 discs at a budget price. Volume Two features the famous waltzes 'Vienna Blood' and 'Voices of Spring' and the 'Thunder and Lightning' polka in addition to some lesser-known gems. The performances and recordings are on a consistently high plane and, if you're wondering how the 'Demolition Polka' got its name, the excellent liner notes, which place each work in historical context, will take care of that.