# Waltzes



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Do you enjoy Waltzes? I know many around here feel that the fact that the Waltz king Johann Strauss II was a bit too light makes his music bad, I disagree and in fact love it, but if you do love Waltzes, but not Strauss, who do you prefer to listen to?


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)




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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I'll take a listen! Thanks.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)




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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I really like the P. Glass one!


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

The Mauricio and Shostokovich are great.


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Richard Strauss wrote a number of good ones. His most famous is a suite of waltzes from "Der Rosenkavalier". This video is an extremely short version


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

If Brahms loved the Strauss waltzes (so many of which are thematically inventive, orchestrally colorful, structurally interesting … and danceable!) then I do, too.

Brahms actually did quite well writing waltzes himself. Sample this set:






Prokofiev wrote some fine waltzes, my favorite of which is from the _Cinderella_ Ballet. It's featured near the end of the following Suite.


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Less often heard are the waltzes of Emil Waldteufel

One of my favorites is his Spanish waltz. I once conducted it with an amateur orchestra. Here's a band transcription of it:


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> The Mauricio and Shostokovich are great.


Mauricio Kagel is a composer well worth exploring


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Franz Lehar was a major contributor to the waltz genre

His most famous (audio only):


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Anybody mentioned Andre Rieu yet? Please don't.......

I have posted this piece before somewhere here, personally I find it heart-wrenchingly beautiful, others may find it schmaltzy, don't care!


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## Buxtehude (Jun 14, 2018)

Three waltzes that always get me
Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky) I must have imprinted on it at a young age

Waltz of the Snowflakes (also Tch.) the fountains at Longwood Gardens use this for their Christmas display, and it signifies the start of the season for me.

Valse Triste by Sibelius I imprinted on this at a slightly older age


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Joseph Lanner (1801~1843) waltzes:










Chopin famously criticized Johann Strauss Sr., Lanner and the Viennese public who loved their work as having "corrupt taste". 
http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics3/chopinwaltzes.html


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

R. Strauss, Tchaikovsky composed great waltzes... Der Rosenkavlier, and the great Waltz from "Swan Lake" are two of the best ever....Julius Fucik wrote some very good ones, also...
those of J. Strauss have beautiful melodies, and a nice lift to them, but for me, a little goes a long way....definitely small doses for me..
Sibelius "Valse Triste" is wonderful, if poignant and sad....
perhaps the best of all is Ravel - "La Valse" is a great work, the archtypical dance of the pre WWI Gilded Age, tears itself into pieces, as the Great War rages across the globe...."Valses Nobles et Sentimentales" are are excellent, also.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

As usual there's no high quality on line video of Balanchine's La Valse (to Ravel). Here's an excerpt. This dance, along with three other dances to French music. is available on a Blu-Ray video.

https://smile.amazon.com/New-York-C...rk+city+ballet+in+paris&qid=1575840779&sr=8-1


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I love good waltzes. Here's my absolute favorite:


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I hate waltzes with a passion. But this one I love.






I didn't pay attention to the Prokofiev till now, and those are easily up there for me.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I'm surprised no one has posted any of Chopin's Waltzes.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Captainnumber36 said:


> I'm surprised no one has posted any of Chopin's Waltzes.


I'd take the Babbitt Minute Waltz Mandryka posted over any of his


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

jegreenwood said:


> As usual there's no high quality on line video of Balanchine's La Valse (to Ravel). Here's an excerpt. This dance, along with three other dances to French music. is available on a Blu-Ray video.
> 
> https://smile.amazon.com/New-York-C...rk+city+ballet+in+paris&qid=1575840779&sr=8-1


Goldsmith's nod to Ravel, the Dress Waltz from his score to Legend.






Kamen's quirky Munchausen Waltz is one of my favorites.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Strauss waltzes were my adolescent gateway to classical music, and I still enjoy them occasionally. My favorite among the Strausses is Johann's younger brother Josef, whom Johann thought more talented than himself. Josef composed within the stylistic parameters of the Viennese dance tradition as established by his father and brother, but he had a subtler, moodier Romantic temperament than his more extroverted brother. His ears were open to the "progressive" music of the day, as we can hear in the wonderful chromatic harmonies of some of his introductions and the sensuousness, wide leaps and original turns of his melodies. Some of his best-known waltzes:

"Spharenklange": 




"Aquarellen": 




"Dorfschwalben aus Osterreich": 




"Delirien": 




"Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb und Lust":


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

The King of waltzes .


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Scriabin, Op. 38

Maybe it's more of a drunken waltz, but I think it's a wonderful, quirky piece. And this interpretation and - somehow - even the recording quality add to that.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

I've loved Granados' _Valses Poeticos_, a suite of seven short Waltzes, ever since I heard them performed by the incomparable Alicia de Larrocha. Nowadays they're often performed on guitar, most notably on disc by Julian Bream. This is a performance by the brilliant young Turkish guitarist, Celil Refik Kaya.


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