# The "Bernstein Conducts Strauss" CD



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I know Strauss isn't very much appreciated around here, but I quite fancy this disc of compositions by the Waltz legend. It's full of joy and spirit as we near the Holidays. 

I love it and recommend it to anyone else who like me, loves Strauss II.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

It may be worth clarifying that you are talking of the second *Johann *rather than *Richard *who is the one we usually call just "Strauss" except where waltzes are mentioned. I have nothing against Johann II. He was a true master at his game. Limited but delightful.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

I consider myself a Strauss appreciator (any of the three main Strausses, really). My go-tos come from my Karajan 80s box set:






























Strauss II was an excellent composer and orchestrator. I love listening to his music, and my family does, too. Not every piece of music needs to be Beethoven's 9th, you know?


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

The best conductor for J Strauss was ............................. Willi Boskovsky.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Rogerx said:


> The best conductor for J Strauss was ............................. Willi Boskovsky.


Brilliant! Just wonderful.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Was there a choir part written in the original score of On the Blue Danube?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Was there a choir part written in the original score of On the Blue Danube?


Yes, but it never caught on and the piece became successful only after Strauss dropped it.


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

There was a fighter called Bruce the Mouse Strauss but I don't think he wrote waltzes.








But I do like all of the waltz writing Strauss dudes. I think there was a pile of them. 
Danube is a favored piece of music for me. It's fun Classical.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

MatthewWeflen said:


> Strauss II was an excellent composer and orchestrator.


Agreed. His experiments with orchestral effects and colors inspired Mahler and Shostakovich. I believe they both referenced Strauss II in portions of their work.


















I find it weird certain composers get criticized for writing 3/4 time dance music all their lives, but some other composers who did the same get away from criticism.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

hammeredklavier said:


> I find it weird certain composers get criticized for writing 3/4 time dance music all their lives, but some other composers who did the same get away from criticism.


He certainly wrote a lot of 3/4 time music, but a lot of non-3/4, too. All those galops, polkas, and such. Not to mention perhaps the greatest operetta ever put to paper, Die Fledermaus - lots and lots of music that isn't 3/4. Today's pop composers and "artists" should learn from him. They can't seem to write anything that isn't 2- or 4-beats and 8-bar phrases.

My favorite Strauss collection, and one that is seriously overlooked:


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Oldhoosierdude said:


> But I do like all of the waltz writing Strauss dudes. I think there was a pile of them.
> Danube is a favored piece of music for me. It's fun Classical.


Yes, the whole family got in on the act. Johann, Sr., tried and failed to keep Jr. from entering the popular music profession, and later on Jr. found himself in such demand that he drafted his brother Josef to compose and conduct. Josef turned out to be a great musician in his own right; Johann said of him, "Josef is the more gifted of us two; I am merely the more popular..."

Some of Josef's waltzes are among the most beautiful products of the Strauss dynasty, with a superb melodic inventiveness and a moody, sensuous poetry of their own, their harmony and orchestration at times clearly influenced by the Weber/Wagner branch of German Romanticism, especially in their introductions. Among his finest: "Village Swallows," 



 "Music of the Spheres," 



 "Delirien" 



 and "Aquarellen"


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

He is a composer I've mostly ignored. I'm generally not crazy about that style of waltz, (even Ravel's _La Valse_ tends to rub me the wrong way). However the other day I was using some of his music as sight reading practice and it came across as fairly well constructed music as far as I could tell.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

mbhaub said:


> He certainly wrote a lot of 3/4 time music, but a lot of non-3/4, too. All those galops, polkas, and such. Not to mention perhaps the greatest operetta ever put to paper, Die Fledermaus - lots and lots of music that isn't 3/4.


Right. Not to mention he also wrote good marches


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Who can resist this?

Beautiful opera singer Kathleen Battle singing wonderfully the waltz "Voices of Spring" by Johann Strauss II written in 1882. This was in 1987 in Vienna. Conductor is Herbert von Karajan.


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## haydnguy (Oct 13, 2008)

Rogerx said:


> Who can resist this?
> 
> Beautiful opera singer Kathleen Battle singing wonderfully the waltz "Voices of Spring" by Johann Strauss II written in 1882. This was in 1987 in Vienna. Conductor is Herbert von Karajan.


Can't see the picture.

EDIT: This is odd. When I did the Quick Reply to say that I couldn't see the picture it popped up fine. (video). On your original post it's still blank. Oh well.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

They are running on my PC. It's voices of spring by Karajan from You Tube


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