SOMM Recordings celebrates the wealth of popular concert music produced in Vienna in the 19th and early 20th centuries with a release called Dancing in Vienna, an exhilarating collection of waltzes to set your feet tapping. The Philharmonic Concert Orchestra is led by the versatile Scottish conductor, Iain Sutherland, whose previous, wide-ranging collaborations with SOMM have received enthusiastic critical response: “strong and trenchant, often exhilarating, never sentimental,” Gramophone; “getting pretty much everything right, every nuance and subtle rhythm,” Amazon USA.
Einzi Stolz, widow of one of the last masters of Viennese light music, Robert Stolz, wrote to Sutherland, “You have a Viennese heart with the golden arm for Viennese music.” Robert Stolz’s rousing march, Greetings from Vienna, opens this collection, which also includes his Viennese Cafe Waltzes.
Dominating the light music programmes of Vienna for almost a century was the Strauss family—Johann I and his three sons Johann II, Josef, and Eduard. They composed dances and conducted their own orchestras for all the grand balls and concerts almost every day of the week in Vienna, as well as all over the world.
Among the works by Johann Strauss II included here is his famous Emperor Waltz, commissioned in 1889 for a state visit by Emperor Franz-Joseph I of Austria-Hungary to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.Reflecting the rise of popular Hungarian gypsy music at the time is his Salute the Magyars polka, along with the Trisch Trasch, Thunder and Lightning, and Champagne polkas, and the overture to his operetta masterpiece, Die Fledermaus.
Johann II was the most famous of the family of musicians, though he once said of his younger brother, Josef Strauss, that he was “the more gifted of us two; I am merely the more popular…” From Josef Strauss we have the Chatterbox Polka, Dragonfly Polka-Mazurka, Jockey Polka (incorporating the international trumpet call marking the opening of the racing season), the Feuerfest! Polka to celebrate the Wertheim company’s 200,000th fireproof safe, and the beloved Pizzicato Polka, on which he collaborated with popular brother.
The youngest of the Strauss brothers, Eduard Strauss, was better recognized as a dance music conductor than as a composer. Still, this release includes his Clear Track Polka, heralding the opening of a new railway company in 1869.
Johannes Brahms greatly admired the melodic genius of Johann Strauss II. Their respect was mutual, and Strauss often included his good friend’s Hungarian Dances on his programmes. This present collection includes Nos. 1, 5, and 6 from Brahms’s collection of 21 dances.
The lesser-known composer, author, and musical administrator Richard Heuberger is represented on this CD of Dancing in Vienna by the overture to his light opera, The Opera Ball.
On This Recording
- Greetings from Vienna March (3:47)
- The Opera Ball (7:58)
- Chatterboxes (3:16)
- The Dragonfly (4:16)
- Clear Track! (2:14)
- Emperor Waltz (11:49)
- Jockey Polka (1:49)
- Pizzicato Polka (2:44)
- Long Live the Magyar! (2:33)
- No 1, Allegro molto (3:22)
- No. 5, Allegro (2:50)
- No. 6, Vivace (3:57)
- Fireproof! “Anvil Polka” (3:11)
- Tritsch-Tratsch Polka (2:58)
- Thunder and Lightning Polka (3:20)
- Viennese Café Waltz (5:53)
- Die Fledermaus: Overture (9:14)
- Champagne Polka (2:30)
Reviews:
MusicWeb International:
“A glance at Iain Sutherland’s biography contains his huge experience as a conductor. He brings plenty of unexpected touches that keep us listeners on our toes and encourage us to “listen” rather than simply “hear” the music.”
London Light Music:
“This release is of live concert recordings by the Philharmonic Concert Orchestra under the highly regarded Scottish Maestro, Iain Sutherland, several of whose previous SOMM discs have been favourably reviewed here, of the pleasurable, and very well played music, so fitting to the opulence and elegance of the Austrian capital of the time.”
The Light Music Society:
“SOMM records latest release from the acclaimed conductor Iain Sutherland and the Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, proves to be a delectable box of treats from the age in which it felt that the party would never end. The Strauss Family are indeed well represented on this disc, and Richard Heuberger’s overture to “Die Opernball” is always welcome, however one name with which you may not be so familiar on this release is Robert Stolz. His works are of the later “silver” stage of Viennese music. Stolz conducted with a baton that had been bequeathed to him by Franz Lehar, who, in turn, had inherited it from Johann Strauss II. On the evidence of this recording, I’d say metaphorically, if not literally, that great baton has been passed on once again.”
