# Nothing Like Strauss for the Holidays



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

His Waltzes, as "Pugg" (where is he now?) once said, are great for new years day! 

:tiphat:

And Merry Christmas TC!


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Captainnumber36 said:


> His Waltzes, as "Pugg" (where is he now?) once said, are great for new years


No thankyou.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

DaveM said:


> No thankyou.


Aw, be a good sport now, it's just around the corner!


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Just make sure the insulin in on hand.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Do all hate on Strauss so badly? I find his music quite charismatic and colorful!


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## DBLee (Jan 8, 2018)

I enjoy Strauss when I'm in the mood for Strauss. He can also be a nice change of pace in a concert programme.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

DBLee said:


> I enjoy Strauss when I'm in the mood for Strauss. He can also be a nice change of pace in a concert programme.


Thanks for a positive post, I really love his work!  It's simple, but it's very colorful and pretty.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I've always been fond of the dances Strauss family, especially the poetic and piquant waltzes of Johann's brother Josef. If I lived in Vienna I'd definitely join in the New Year festivities.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I don't mind them, in small doses. I would not put them in the CD player myself, nor would I listen to a complete concert. For light classical music, I prefer mixtures of different composers, such as the excellent Hyperion CD series.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

I make a tradition of it to catch the Blue Danube on television every year, hungover or not. It's the first piece of music I listen to every year. Once a year I enjoy it a lot.


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## Guest (Dec 24, 2018)

Maybe a controversial opinion, but Andre Rieu is certainly more _in the spirit_ of Strauss ballroom music than the flaccid old Wieners performing their deflated and indifferent New Year's Day tradition. 

^might sound harsh, but I have always felt that there's a certain spirit lacking in the Wiener Philharmoniker's yearly tradition, perhaps it needs a bit of rejuvenation.......


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

The quality of the Vienna New Year's concerts will vary from year to year, but some are beautifully performed and highly enjoyable. This is a grand tradition, a joyous tradition despite the dubious authors of its origins, and many of these cheerful concerts, hosted by one of the great orchestras in the world, with romantic dancing, have been posted online and usually conducted by the finest conductors in the world, such as Eric Kleiber, Zubin Mehta, and Daniel Barenboim.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Do all hate on Strauss so badly? I find his music quite charismatic and colorful!


No, I love Strauss: Richard Strauss.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

They are wonderful music but don't often fit with my life. This is a nicely programmed disc.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I can think of three things I went to voluntarily that had me lookinjg for excuses to leave after the first 15 minutes: A curling match, an informal game of polo, and an evening of drag-racing. To those I think I would add the VPO's New Year's concert.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

shirime said:


> Maybe a controversial opinion, but Andre Rieu is certainly more _in the spirit_ of Strauss ballroom music than the flaccid old Wieners performing their deflated and indifferent New Year's Day tradition.
> 
> ^might sound harsh, but I have always felt that there's a certain spirit lacking in the Wiener Philharmoniker's yearly tradition, perhaps it needs a bit of rejuvenation.......


The Vienna New Year celebrations have a different guest conductor every year. Plenty of distinguished maestri have led the Philharmonic in superb performances, and recordings are available. How does Andre Rieu stack up against Karajan, Maazel, Harnoncourt, at al.? He doesn't, and he isn't really even playing Strauss. He rearranges and reorchestrates the waltzes for no reason whatever, and his orchestra doesn't understand the style, particularly the peculiar Viennese rhythmic lilt, the subtle anticipations and rubati that few nonnative musicians can feel but the Viennese have in their blood.

What is it you like? Rieu's showmanship? I'll take musicianship.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I think they’re good as light listening anytime really. Some are masterpieces of the genre - eg. Emperor, Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Woods. I like when he adds interesting features such as the zither in Vienna Woods. It’s a bit like the features in Haydn’s symphonies.

In terms of the conversation about the Vienna New Years concert versus Andre Rieu, I’m a fan of the latter.

Rieu puts on a good show and his albums have a variety of light music, mixing classical with show tunes, film themes and pop. He moved from a career in classical to what he is now, more an entertainer and director. There’s no attempt to hide this, and the people who enjoy his productions in no way feel short changed. Quite the contrary.

There’s an element of letting go and suspending belief about both concerts. The fake Schonbrunn backdrop to Rieu’s concerts has a parallel with the Singverein, itself a reconstruction of a building almost totally destroyed during WWII. Rieu’s orchestra is full of pretty women in period dress, while VPO had no women until the 1990’s (which is when Rieu set up his orchestra as a full time outfit).


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

Please, allow me to make a small ''correction''. (I understand that you don't have a German keyboard installed and for this the "") 

The composer is Strauß and not Strauss. The first is the guy with the Waltzes from Wien (Johann and Co) , the second the composer of Ariadne from Garmisch. (the Richard) The ß is actually the double s in German language. But you CANT write Strasse. It is Straße. (you will find both versions of his name in the internet. The second (the correct) more often.) Details but with this way we can separate easily the two composers. 

(Strauß is a very pleasant composer. Easy music, but much better for other things we are listening nowadays. I like his Fledermaus which is very nice for the Christmas time)


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

*Nothing Like Strauss for the Holidays? *

Nothing. Except everything else.
Sure, Strauss was a talented master who composed some of the most memorable music in the Western tradition. Brahms admired him immensely. Face it, the "Blue Danube" is a quality work. I just tend to always end up playing something else. So, sue me! If you win the case, you won't get many Strauss recordings in the booty. A lot, though, of everything else.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Blue Danube? It always makes me think of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Oddysey.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Enthusiast said:


> Blue Danube? It always makes me think of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Oddysey.


It makes me think of the actual Danube, especially the boat trip from Vienna to Bratislava or even Budapest. But at least in Vienna, the Danube is no more blue, rather greenish brown


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I'm not that old yet. Played Turangalila this morning.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Some of the waltzes are sentimental in somewhat creative ways. 'sadness disguised as happiness.'
Along with the D flat major from Chopin's Trois Nouvelles Etudes and Liszt's Valse Impromptu, I think they're an interesting side of Romantic music.


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## Geoff48 (Aug 15, 2020)

Snag with recordings of Strauss is they frequently abbreviate the introduction to the Waltz. Which can be very destructive. Tales from the Vienna Woods starts with a three minute introduction which sets the pastoral scene with birds twittering and the main waltz theme previewed on a zither. Really beautiful and often omitted. In fact I didn’t know it existed until I acquired the Clemens Krauss Decca Ace of Clubs New Year Concert LP. He made much of the introduction, unfortunately nowadays many conductors treat it as something to get through as quickly and with as little fuss as possible before getting to the main event, the main sequence of 
waltz tunes. And they seem equally unconcerned with the reminiscence at the end where the zither returns almost as if the composer is thinking of the beauty he has left behind. 
For me, despite the thin and ageing recording no conductor has ever equalled Krauss in this waltz. And on the original LP it was followed by the slowest and dreamiest version of Pizzicato Polka, impossible to dance to but utterly unique and making so much more of the work than I have heard. Well worth listening to on Spotify or one of the other streaming services.


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