# Vienna Waltzes - Favourite recordings?



## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Reccomended threads:

*Favorite Waltz Composer/Waltzes?
Poll: Your opinion on J.Strauss and co.?*

I've been searching for threads of waltzes in Talk Classical but I found nothing related to my topic.

Now I'm not as a fan of light waltz music as I was before. My only experience were the Karajan recordings, with the studio BPO 60s recordings being my favourites. I even got a second-hand copy of that recording on vinyl, but then sound is much poorer than what I heard on streaming.

But many people who like to listen and enjoy music without being classical, enjoy waltzes, particularly those from Vienna and also performed in the New Year's Concert. I've thought that I should play next December a Strauss Family challenge with also Strauss Jr. Operettas. With my reviews, I would be able to recommend cheap recordings to those people, so in a way it can be worth it if I don't burn out XD.

I have made a list of recordings from Spotify but I would like you to name your favourites here. Also I have two particular questions:

*1:* Stolz complete recordings in Sony with the Berliner and Wiener Symphoniker


















Do you have any opinion? It's the only complete set I've found for a very competitive price.

*2:* What is your favourite New Year's Concert recording?

All yours. Hope you bring lots of great cds here and that I'm not shouting in the void. No mention to André Rieu please...


----------



## Annied (Apr 27, 2017)

I have a von Karajan CD, bought mainly because it included "Roses from the South". As far as I'm concerned, forget playing them in winter, there's nothing like a few Strauss waltzes wafting through the air on a lovely sunny summer's day.


----------



## david johnson (Jun 25, 2007)

The CSO/Reiner CD "Vienna" is a good one.


----------



## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Annied said:


> As far as I'm concerned, forget playing them in winter, there's nothing like a few Strauss waltzes wafting through the air on a lovely sunny summer's day.


:lol: I may wear jumpers on winter but it isn't very cold or cloudy either where I live!

I may not want to play them before Schubert and Dvorak symphonies, and I would need to finish a couple of French and Russian operas first.

I've noticed that the EMI Boskovsky set with 6CDs (conducting the Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester) is OOP, but both the old and new Decca sets are still cheap.


----------



## Fat Bob (Sep 25, 2015)

I collected the Boskovsky Decca discs many years ago - excellent performances though the sound on some of the older recordings shows their age a bit. The complete Marco Polo set is a series I have dipped into and although reviews for some discs in this series suggest they are not all great, I would recommend volumes 26 and 27, both conducted by a chap I had never heard of before, Peter Guth. The best known piece in Vol 26 is probably "Artists Life" waltz, vol 27 has "Wine Women and Song" and "Roses From The South" as well as a number of other less well known but worthwhile pieces.


----------



## Annied (Apr 27, 2017)

Granate said:


> :lol: *I may wear jumpers on winter but it isn't very cold or cloudy either where I live!*
> 
> I may not want to play them before Schubert and Dvorak symphonies, and I would need to finish a couple of French and Russian operas first.
> 
> I've noticed that the EMI Boskovsky set with 6CDs (conducting the Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester) is OOP, but both the old and new Decca sets are still cheap.


I wish I could say the same for my part of the world!

(I'm definitely not a cold weather person despite living in northern England.)


----------



## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Annied said:


> I wish I could say the same for my part of the world!
> 
> (I'm definitely not a cold weather person despite living in northern England.)


Well, tweets that yell at Summer being the worst season of the entire year often go viral in my country...


----------



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

The Boskovsky VPO Waltz CDs are delightful.


----------



## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

So many good ones. David Johnson gave Reiner a nod, and I concur. Also on RCA were several recordings by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops - marvelous! Both conductors lived/studied/worked in Vienna so they knew the music as well as anyone and their superb orchestras play brilliantly.

I don't own any New Year's concerts recordings. I watch it, or listen in the background, sometimes. Not a fan of those sort of things. There are few classical works that I really despise, but that Radetzsky March that they always close with is one of them.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Fritz Reiner/Chicago Symphony. Best I have ever heard in the Strauss Waltzes.

Gemütlich!


----------



## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

Granate said:


> *2:* What is your favourite New Year's Concert recording?


Carlos Kleiber's (1989, 1992). If you can, get the complete box set.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00UOFCIKQ


----------



## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Portamento said:


> Carlos Kleiber's (1989, 1992). If you can, get the complete box set.
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00UOFCIKQ


I've seen plenty of those concerts still on print on single CDs. If I love only one of those I'm not going to get a whole box 

Kleiber WPO 89 B000026AYF
Kleiber WPO 92 B000026RZV


----------



## Ras (Oct 6, 2017)

I have three of Willy Boskowski's Decca discs with the Strauss-family and that's about plenty for me.

For something similar if you just can't get enough you can try "The Strauss of the North" the Danish composer H.C. Lumbye.

This is a good Lumbye cd:


----------

