Customer Reviews

Strauss: The Best of Vienna

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4 star:		(1)
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If I'm not mistaken, most of the pieces were recorded originally live during a 1984 New Year's Concert conducted by Lorin Maazel with the Vienna Philharmonic playing in its grand concert hall, the Musikverein. Maazel and the Vienna Philharmonic have had a longstanding relationship dating from the 1960's, and without question, this CD does rank among my favorite New Year's Concert performances (However, the most mesmerizing ones I've heard have been those with the late Carlos Kleiber and Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting.) for the superb quality of the Vienna Philharmonic's playing. Maazel leads the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in some of the most popular works composed by the Strauss family, most notably Johann II Strauss' Tales from the Vienna Woods Waltz, Emperor Waltz, Pizzicato Polka, Blue Danube Waltz and his father's Radetzky March, which traditionally closes out the annual New Year's Concert. Fans of the Strauss family, Vienna Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel, will not be disappointed with this excellent two CD compilation.

This is great recording,
I enjoy listening to it
veru much. This is a
compilation of all the
favorite waltzes by
the Strauss family, that
one might hear at a
New Year's eve concert
of the Vienna Philharmonic...
All waltzes and Polkas are
favorites of audiences everywhere
in the world...

My favorite collection of perfectly choreographed Johann Strauss ll as well as his father Johann Strauss, and his brother Josepf. Johann ll gets top billing.

This is one of my better investments of the most beautiful music you will ever hear (waltzes and polkas).

I can't get enough. Highly Recommended! I have purchased many as gifts to family & friends.

I love this CD as well, it has all the most popular music numbers of the time. It is just fabulous. I received my CD within days of ordered. I couldn't be happier. My family and I dance all week to Strauss. This is the CD you must have. It is just wonderful to dance to and to listen to. Strauss in his lifetime was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century. This CD will tell you that he was indeed the King.

This 2 CD is amazing. It is great for plane rides and other things. I always listen to it at work. Allmost every song on this CD is beautiful and graceful. The blue danube is a classic and my personal favorite song on this album. Some of the songs are okay but none are bad. Overall this is an amazing 2 CD collection and it is worth every cent of your money . . .

I've heard half a dozen collections of Strauss waltzes, and this is easily the best of them. It is no surprise that the Vienna Philharmonic excels in this repertoire. The conductors are all well known, and serve the music well: Maazel (9 pieces), Karajan (7), Abbado (4), Boskovsky (3) and Bohm (1). Last but not least, these are all live recordings made at various New Years Day Galas in Vienna with copyright dates from 1973 to 1992. The occasion lends the Strauss waltzes the feeling and sparkle they need. [N.B. (note to Benny): there is a similar 2 disk Strauss compilation, Best of New Year's Concert in Vienna, that I haven't heard]

Contrary to an earlier review, the best known waltzes are on hand, and you get over 100 minutes of waltz music. The polkas and other short pieces are well chosen, and provide a good contrast in spirit and tempo. But the waltz is king here, and Strauss is king of the waltz: he has no real rival in this idiom. Listening to pieces like the Emperor Waltz, I marvel at his invention, how he piles on melody after melody, each complementing the preceding ones perfectly, adding up to a marvelous organic whole. It all goes down so easily and smoothly that you can forget how great it is.

These CD's were wonderful. When I drive in the Sierra Nevada mountians I want something peaceful but not boring. I love, love, love it.

This CD was a Christmas present, and it is what we were looking for, double CD with the classical Valtzes And Polkas.

I am actually Austrian and needed farewell gifts for some very good friends. What would have been better than typical Viennese music by one of our best-loved composers and performed by the Vienna Philharmonic? But even if you have no connection to Austria, the CD is absolutely worth buying and LISTENING TO. The pieces are the most famous waltzes and polkas Strauss wrote and everybody knows them back home. Imagine driving through miles of empty coountryside or sitting on your porch with a glass of wine or in your favourite armchair listening to this kind of music! I might just go and do that now ....!

Strauss: The Best of Vienna
Whether one's likenesses for Strauss' music lies with the father or the son does not matter; (Richard neither). 3/4 time music along with their polkas, quadrilles and marches still keep Vienna as the world capital of waltzes.