- Naxosdirect.com

The Leading Classical Music Label Direct To You

Read reviews, listen to the music, and purchase the

Customer Service Toll Free 866.489.4152

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Narrow your search
with our Music Browser

Classical Music

        Ballet
        Chamber Music
        Choral
        Concertos
        Film Music
        Folk Legends
        Instrumental
        Musicals
        Opera / Operetta
        Orchestral
        Vocal

Jazz

Jazz Contemporary
Jazz Icons

New Age

Wind Band

World

        Ballad
        Bhuddist
        Chinese Music
        Classical (World)
        Early Music (World)
        Folk
        Gamelan
        Gypsy
        Hindustani
        Jazz (World)
        Klezmer
        Sufi
        Vocal (World)
        World

Special Offers:

Sale on select Chandos titles

Sale on select BBC Legends Items

Naxos Classics Clearance Sale

Sale on select Naxos American Classics

Sale on Charles Dickens DVD Box Set

Sale on select box sets

Clearance on Complete Beethoven Edition

Sale on the Jazz Icons Series

Clearance

Penguin Guide

200 Essential Recordings

Recently Released

Upcoming Releases

SACD

DVD

        Ballet DVD
        Classical Concert
        Classical Documentary
        Dance Documentary
        Opera DVD

Audio Books

        Anthologies / Collections
        Arts
        Biographies
        Children's Classics
        Classic Fiction
        Great Epics and Tales
        History
        Junior Classic Fiction
        Junior History
        Literature
        Music Biographies
        Music Education
        Non-Fiction
        Philosophy
        Plays - Others
        Plays - Shakespeare
        Poetry
        Religion
        Samplers
        Sports
        Wine Guide

NaxosDirect Podcasts

Video Librarian Reviews

Labels

Naxos Label

        Naxos American Classics
        Naxos Best Of...
        Naxos Box Sets
        Naxos Cinema Classics
        Naxos Classics
        Naxos DVD
        Naxos DVD-Audio
        Naxos International
        Naxos Jazz
        Naxos Limited Edition
        Naxos Milken Archives
        Naxos Night Music
        Naxos Opera
        Naxos Orchestral
        Naxos Special Release
        Naxos Wind Band Classics
        Naxos World

Composers

Conductors

Ensembles

Orchestras

Choirs

Artists

Instruments

Producers

Home

Classical Music

Orchestral

$0.00

This item is not currently available.

This item is currently out of print.

Link to this Link to this page

The Johann Strauss Edition Johann Strauss II, the most famous and enduringly successful of 19th-century light music composers, was born in Vienna on 25...

Read more about this recording

The Johann Strauss Edition

Johann Strauss II, the most famous and enduringly successful of 19th-century light music composers, was born in Vienna on 25 October 1825.

Building upon the firm musical foundations laid by his father, Johann Strauss I (1804-1849) and Joseph Lanner (1801-1843), the younger Johann (along with his brothers, Joseph and Eduard) achieved so high a development of the classical Viennese waltz that it became as much a feature of the concert hall as of the ballroom. For more than half a century Johann II captivated not only Vienna but also the whole of Europe and America with his abundantly tuneful waltzes, polkas, quadrilles and marches. The thrice-married 'Waltz King' later turned his attention to the composition of operetta, and completed 16 stage works besides more than 500 orchestral compositions - including the most famous of all waltzes, The Blue Danube (1867). Johann Strauss II died in Vienna on 3 June 1899.

The Marco Polo Strauss Edition is a milestone in recording history, presenting, for the first time ever, the entire orchestral output of the 'Waltz King'. Despite their supremely high standard of musical invention, the majority of the compositions have never before been commercially recorded and have been painstakingly assembled from archives around the world. All performances featured in this series are complete and, wherever possible, the works are played in their original instrumentation as conceived by the master orchestrator himself, Johann Strauss II.

Hoch �sterreich! Marsch (Hail Austria! March) op. 371

Johann Strauss's operetta Cagliostro in Wien [Premi�re: Theater an der Wien, Vienna. 27 February 1875] was the result of Strauss's first association with the librettist team of F. Zell (the pseudonym of Camillo Walzel) and Richard Genee, and was also the first original work by the two writers who previously had only collaborated on German language versions of operettas by �mile Jonas and Jacques Offenbach. It was Genee who also provided the title and text for the choral march Hoch �sterreich! - one of six individual pieces which Strauss had arranged from melodies in Cagliostro - when it was first performed in an arrangement for male voice choir and orchestra at the premi�re of the operetta in the Theater an der Wien. The first verse of Genee's text reads. "Recht in Freud und Lust/Aus der vollen Brust/Klingt der Ruf: 'Hoch �sterreich!'/Wo er schallet/Wider hallet/Weckt er Echo donnergleich" (Full of joy and merriment, from the depths of the heart sounds the cry: 'Hail Austria!' Where it rings and resounds it wakens the echoes like thunder). The thematic content of the march derives from the first two numbers of Act 1, although the second theme of the Trio section is not traceable in the published piano score of the operetta and may perhaps have been discarded from the final version of the stage work.

In its purely orchestral version, as performed on this recording, Johann's march Hoch �sterreich! was given its first performance by the Strauss Orchestra under Eduard Strauss's direction on 25 June 1875 in the Vienna Volksgarten.

Dorfgeschichten, Walzer im Landlerstyle (Village Tales, Waltz in Landler-style) op. 47

Between 1843 and 1854 the German novelist Berthold Auerbach (1812-82) published a four-volume work entitled Schwarzwalder Dorfgeschichten, a collection of stories of peasant life in the Black Forest which made Auerbach's name and established a successful literary genre. These tales found a wide public, and almost certainly suggested to Johann Strauss an evocative title for one of his waltzes composed in rustic Landler style. Quite possibly, too, Auerbach is one of two figures portrayed on the illustrated cover of the first piano edition of Strauss's Dorfgeschichten, Walzer im Landlerstyle.

The waltz was one of a clutch of new works presented by Johann in the weeks immediately preceding his arduous six-month concert tour through the lands of the Habsburg Empire to the Balkans, which he undertook with his 13-man orchestra in the late autumn and winter of 1847. The lilting Dorfgeschichten itself was played for the first time on 18 September that year at the concert on the broad open expanse of the Vienna Wasserglacis with which the young 'Musikdirektor' bade temporary farewell to his native Vienna. Also featured on the programme of this concert was Strauss's unpublished Standchen (Serenade), which he had earlier played in June 1847 at his musical serenades before the palace of the exiled Serbian Prince Milos Obrevoic I and at the home of one of the professors in the medical faculty of Vienna University.

Electro-Magnetische Polka (Electro-Magnetic Polka) op. 110

In 1820 the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851) discovered the connection between electricity and magnetism when he observed the directive action of an electric current on a magnetic needle. That same year two other scientists working independently, the French physicist Dominique Fran�ois Jean Arago (1786-1853) and the English chemist, Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829), announced that a copper wire carrying an electric current could magnetise steel needles placed across it, and could attract iron filings. It was these preliminary discoveries which in 1825 led another Englishman, William Sturgeon (1783-1850), to construct the first true electromagnet: by connecting a wet battery to a soft iron horseshoe loosely wound with 18 turns of wire, the electromagnet was able to lift 20 times its own weight. Sturgeon's experiments attracted widespread attention, and the mid-nineteenth century especially saw feverish activity among scientists in Europe and America who busied themselves with the practical applications of this discovery - for example Joseph Henry in the United States who, in 1831, established an electromagnetic telegraph.

Johann Strauss the Eider and his three sons were not only consummate musical craftsmen; they were also astute businessmen who knew instinctively how best to appeal to the sheet music-buying public. For that reason, they spurned the practice of merely assigning keys and opus numbers to differentiate their compositions, choosing instead to christen their dance works with more easily recalled titles which read like a cultural, historical and scientific guide book of the age. Thus, when Johann Strauss the Younger was seeking a name for the new polka he had written for the ballot the technical students of Vienna University, held in the Sofienbad-Saal on 11 February 1852, he simply plucked a term from the contemporary scientific vocabulary Electro-magnetische.

Novellen, Walzer (Legal Amendments, Waltz) op. 146

If Johann Strauss had felt the need to reassert his position as 'Vorgeiger aller Wiener' (Principal Violinist/Conductor of all the Viennes), following his enforced absence through illness during the summer of 1853, he could not have chosen a more conspicuous way of commencing the New Year. For during the course of an 'Extraordinary Concert Soiree' held in the Sofienbad-Saal on the evening of 2 January 1854, the 28-year-old 'Musikdirektor' conducted his orchestra - augmented to 54 players - in the first performance in Vienna of the overture to Richard Wagner's opera Tannhauser und der Sangerkrieg auf Wartburg

(1845). Despite the supposedly conservative nature of the Viennese public, part of the work had to be repeated and Strauss also featured this overture in his concerts at the 'Sperl' and at Schwender's.

With the commencement of the 1854 Vienna Carnival Strauss once again devoted his attention to his activities as a dance music composer and conductor. Yet the waltz dedications he wrote for the various festivities differed markedly in their conception: while Ballg'schichten op. 150 (Volume 7) followed the genial style of the old Viennese waltz, Schallwellen op. 148 (Volume 8) and Novellen op 146 - the latter dedicated to the law students at Vienna University on the occasion of their ball held on 31 January in the Sofienbad-Saal - reflect Strauss's fascination for the 'revolutionary' orchestrations of Wagner and Meyerbeer. It was a musical flirtation which did not pass unchallenged, however, for in an article in the Wiener Zeitung (6 November 1854) Vienna's 'Music Pope', Dr. Eduard Hanslick, grumbled: "Even themes like the first ones of 'Wellen und Wogen', 'Schneeglockchen', 'Novellen', with their lengthy eight-bar motifs, their groaning diminished seventh and ninth chords, [and] the thundering noise of their trombones and timpani are no longer appropriate for dancing. For that reason, not everything which is played in three-quarter-time is a waltz.

Seladon-Quadrille (Languishing Admirers, Quadrille) op. 48

Dommayer's Casino, in the Viennese suburb of Hietzing, enjoyed a special place in the heart of the younger Johann Strauss, for it was in this popular establishment that the 18-year-old. Musikdirektor' made his triumphant public debut as conductor and composer on 15 October 1844. From 1868 to 1878 he even made his home in Hietzing, just around the corner from Dommayer's, and it was in his villa there that much of his finest music, including Die Fledermaus (1874), was created.

In 1787 a certain Herr Dick, a waiter, built a coffee-house in gardens opposite the Kaiserstockl, the small lodge at the west entrance of Schonbrunn Park. The coffee house enjoyed great popularity with the Viennese as a meeting place, and in 1817 it was bought by a Hietzing innkeeper, Herr Reiter, who enlarged and extended the property into a tavern. In 1823 Reiter entrusted the business to his son-in-law, a 23-year-old comb-maker called Ferdinand Dommayer (1799-1858), under whose ownership the venue opened on 4 June that year as 'Dommayer's Coffee- and Restaurant-Keeper's House'. In 1832 the surrounding small buildings were acquired and demolished to enable the Lichtenstein building director, Josef Leistler, to construct the splendid building know as 'Dommayer's Casino'.

On 24 June 1833 the comfortably appointed establishment was opened, and respectable Viennese society soon flocked there to enjoy its intimate Viennese festivals, balls and numerous reunions. When Ferdinand Dommayer died, the business was continued for many years by his son, Franz (1822-1900), but after a farewell celebration on 3 February 1907, the building and garden were demolished to make way for the 'Parkhotel Schonbrunn' (since 1934, 'H�bner's Parkhotel Schonbrunn'). In 1921 a new Dommayer's ('Cafe Dommayerhof') was opened at the junction of Dommayergasse and Aufhofstrasse.

Dommayer's Casino provided a regular venue for the younger Strauss and his orchestra during their early years, and it was at his benefit concert there on 15 February 1847 that Johann conducted his Lions-Quadrille for the first time. The title was well chosen, for amongst the client�le which frequented Dommayer's at the time was the "jeunesse doree" (literally, "gilded youth") - educated, but spoiled young people from Vienna's best families, who sought to entertain themselves in the most outrageous and extraordinary manner. The young ladies, especially, were prone to flaunt themselves in the latest follies of fashion, and Dommayer's became the preferred arena for the prowling 'Salon-Lowen' (literally 'Salon Lions') or 'ladies' men' - whose proud strutting is so amusingly portrayed in the opening section of Johann's Lions-Quadrille.

The work was later published under the title Seladon-Quadrille.

Studentenlust, Walzer (Students' Joy, Waltz) op. 285

A brief musical statement from Ludwig Fischer's popular student song, "Im k�hlen Keller sitz' ich hier", quoted in the Introduction and Coda of the waltz Studentenlust, frames one of the Waltz King's most delightful creations of 1864. Equally delightful is the humorous title page illustration adorning the first piano edition of the waltz, depicting a student being transported through the air upon a wine cask steered by a vine-bedecked bacchanal, a flustered professor hanging on for dear life behind. Around the student are the objects of his joy - his pipe, stein, fencing foil and, seated next to him, his beloved playing a guitar, while a couple dance gaily in the background. His textbooks serve as a useful foot-stool!

The 1864 Vienna Carnival proved hectic for the Strauss brothers, who were called upon to provide no less than 16 new works for the various festivities. In January, following disagreements with Carl Haslinger, Johann and Josef (and soon afterwards Eduard) entrusted all their dance music to the publishing house of C.A. Spina. The first Strauss work to appear with this imprint was Johann's waltz Morgenblatter (Morning Papers), one of the 2 waltzes and 4 polkas he wrote for that year's carnival. The other waltz, Studentenlust, was composed for the Students' Ball held in the Redoutensaal of the Imperial Hofburg Palace on 31 January. Strauss respectfully dedicated his waltz to "the most serene and high-born ladies in their capacity as patronesses of the Students' Ball". Rather surprisingly, Studentenlust was programmed only five times during Johann's 1864 summer concert series in Pavlovsk - indeed, its first appearance was not until late in the season at his benefit concert on 20 September (= 8 September, Russian calendar) - whereas, by comparison, Morgenblatter

was played on 33 occasions and the Persischer Marsch (op. 289) enjoyed a remarkable 65 performances during the composer's five month Russian engagement.

Episode, Polka fran�aise (Episode, French polka) op. 296

In autumn 1864 Johann Strauss returned in a poor state of health from his ninth summer concert season in Pavlovsk. On 26 January 1865 his wife, Jetty, described his situation to a friend: "Jean came back very unwell, and has only recently felt a little better; however, according to w hat the greatest medical experts say, he must not even think of any strenuous activity. At least two years' rest, baths and more rest. Carlsbad and then Gastein will restore the poor lad. Here, he plays from time to time in the Volksgarten, for total withdrawal would also be dangerous for him, but any strain must be carefully avoided".

Thus, to relieve their older brother, Josef and Eduard Strauss bore the brunt of the 1865 Carnival 'campaign'. But the family's plans for Johann were thwarted when Josef suddenly collapsed at his writing-desk and was unable to continue discharging his duties as conductor/composer. Johann was left no alternative but to appear again at the head of the orchestra, and in addition to contribute more musical novelties than he had planned to write. The only one to which he had really committed himself was the waltz Feuilleton (Volume 10) for the 'Concordia' ball, but for the dance festivities of the lawyers, engineers and students he now composed for each a new polka. That for the Students' Ball bore the name Tanz-Episode (Dance Episode), and Johann conducted the Strauss Orchestra in its first performance at the ball in the Redoutensaal of the Imperial Hofburg Palace on 20 February. Bearing a dedication to "the Gentlemen Committee Members of the Students' Ball", the piano edition of the polka fran�aise appeared the following month with its title shortened to Episode.

The work may strike a familiar note with some listeners through Antal Dorati's arrangement of it as the dance for 'The Prima Donna' in his pastiche ballet Graduation Ball (1940).

Rosen aus dem S�den, Walzer (Roses from the South, Waltz) op. 388

"It was an eventful evening; the house was filled to the gables in order to hear a new work by our Strauss, for Strauss enjoys the increasingly rare title 'our' which is the ultimate superlative for an artist:

Positive = Herr Strauss

Comparative = Strauss

Superlative = Our Strauss!"

So wrote the Fremdenblatt

newspaper (3 October) in its review of the highly successful premi�re of Johann Strauss's operetta Das Spitzentuch der Konigin ('The Queen's Lace Handkerchief'), which opened at Vienna's Theater an der Wien on 1 October 1880.

The composer himself, though delighted by the reception accorded his latest stage work, was unconvinced that it would enjoy a lasting success. But he had no such doubts about the magnificent orchestral waltz, Rosen aus dem S�den, which he had hurriedly assembled from themes in his operetta, and whose piano edition his publisher, Cranz, was able to advertise in the press (together with the first Spitzentuch potpourri) just four days after the theatrical premi�re! The honour of conducting the first performance of Rosen aus dem S�den fell to Johann's brother, Eduard, who was still on a concert tour of Germany when Spitzentuch received its premi�re.

Not until 7 November, therefore, at Eduard's Sunday afternoon concert in the Musikverein, did the waltz begin its triumphant conquest of the world, comprising, as it did, many of the musical highlights from the operetta. Two numbers which had drawn especial praise from the Spitzentuch first-night reviewers were the King's Act 1 Tr�ffel-Couplet ("Stets kommt mir wieder in den Sinn" - the refrain of which Strauss claimed he had rewritten twelve times!) and Cervantes's Act 2 Romance, "Wo die wilde Rose erbl�ht", and these both appear in Rosen aus dem S�den, as Waltz 1 and Waltz 2A respectively.

Of interest is the publication by Cranz, in October 1880, of two separate piano editions of Rosen aus dem S�den. The first issue bears no dedication and has a title page illustration showing roses and palm branches interwoven in a lace handkerchief.

The second, which introduces slight modifications to the musical score and features on its cover a rose-entwined veranda and a volcano - presumably Vesuvius - is dedicated by the composer "in deepest respect to his Majesty Humbert I, King of Italy".

Burschenwanderung, Polka fran�aise (Student Travels, French polka) op. 389

Despite the enthusiastic reception accorded to Johann Strauss's seventh operetta, Das Spitzentuch der Konigin ('The Queen's Lace Handkerchief'), at its premi�re on 1 October 1880 in the Theater an der Wien, public interest in the new work slackened off more quickly than had been anticipated. But this in no way diminished the bargaining power of the theatrical agent Gustav Lewy, who swiftly succeeded in placing the stage work with the Friedrich-Wilhelmstadtisches Theater in Berlin, as well as with theatres in Graz, Hamburg, Hanover, Lemberg, Budapest, Prague, Munich and Trieste. In Vienna, Strauss conducted his first benefit performance of Spitzentuch on 20 October, and left four weeks later with his wife Lili for premi�res of the operetta in Berlin and Hamburg.

Before departing for Germany, however, he still had one obligation to discharge. Rudolf Weinwurm, chorus-master of the Wiener Mannergesang-Verein (Vienna Men's Choral Association), who had led the first performances of Johann's choral waltzes An der schonen blauen Donau (1867) and Wein, Weib und Gesang! (1869), had recently left to take up the post of chorus-master with the Akademischer Gesangverein in Wien (Academic Choral Society in Vienna). It was in his new capacity that he requested Strauss to contribute a new choral composition for his first 'Liedertafel' (Song Programme) with the Akademischer Gesangverein, due to be given in the Sofienbad-Saal on 7 December 1880. Johann willingly complied and, to a poem by August Seuffert, wrote his Burschenwanderung, Polka fran�aise which he dedicated to the Society. Seuffert's text sings of the joys of student drinking festivals and celebrates the memory of the legendary Herr von Rodenstein, who was in reality reported to have been a devout nobleman from Odenwald who died as a pilgrim in Rome in 1500. As Dr. John Whitten points out, however, the poet Viktor von Scheffel presented Rodenstein as an "heroicdrunkard" who, in order to pay his bills, was forced to pawn his villages. His last he bequeathed to the students of Heidelberg - who likewise promptly drank away their inheritance!

Burschenwanderung is recorded here in its version for orchestra alone, in which form it was first played by the Strauss Orchestra under Eduard Strauss at a 'Carnival Revue' in the Grosser Musikverein-Saal (Great Hall of the Musikverein) on 6 March 1881.

Le premier jour de bonheur. Opera de D.F.E. Auber. Quadrille

(The First Day of Happiness. Opera by D.F.E.Auber. Quadrille) op. 327

From the Strauss Orchestra's earliest days, the music of the French composer Daniel Fran�ois Esprit Auber (1782-1871) found a ready place in its repertoire. Johann Strauss Father's European concert tour programmes were seldom without one of Auber's operatic overtures - La Muette de Portici (1828) and Le Serment, ou Les Faux-monnayeurs (1832) were to prove particular favourites - while the former was also to feature in the younger Johann's historic debut concert at Dommayer's Casino in October 1844. Moreover, given the generally tuneful nature of Auber's stage works, it is hardly surprising that the musicians of the Strauss family were to include melodies from no less than seven of them in their dance compositions.

Auber's opera, Le premier jour de bonheur, was given its premi�re at the Opera Comique in Paris on 15 February 1868, while performances were staged in Prague and Munich during September of that year. Auber's stage works had long been popular in Vienna, but not until 7 November 1874, in the recently-opened Komische Oper building (later re-named the Ringtheater) on the Schottenring, was a production of Auber's opera mounted there, where it was seen as Der erste Gl�ckstag. By contrast, the Strauss Orchestra once again demonstrated its importance in the cultural life of Austria by introducing selections of the music from Le premier jour de bonheur, arranged as a quadrille, more than six years before the opera was staged in Vienna. Johann Strauss unveiled his new dance piece on themes from Auber's work on 3 September 1868, when he conducted it at a concert in the capacious Blumen-Sale der Gartenbaugesellschaft (Floral Halls of the Vienna Horticultural Society) as one of the many entertainments held during a large scale 'German Artists' Congress' in the Austrian capital.

Seid Umschlungen, Millionen. Walzer (Be embraced, ye millions. Waltz) op. 443

"Brahms must be honoured with a dedication, by a waltz of my composition. In due course I want to present him with this waltz, popular, yet spicy and peppered, without sacrificing the purpose of a waltz... He must, however, be told nothing about it!" Thus wrote Johann Strauss on 25 November 1891, in a letter to the Berlin-based Fritz Simrock, publisher of his forthcoming full-scale opera, Ritter Pasman [Premi�re: Hofoperntheater, Vienna 1 January 1892].

It had been Johannes Brahms (1833-97) who had prompted the contract between Strauss and Simrock, his own publisher, when he challenged the latter in April 1889 "to arrange a tie-up with him". Simrock had accepted, and for the next three years acted as Johann's sole publisher (opp. 437-445). In the event, Ritter Pasman proved an unequivocal failure Strauss was deeply upset, the more so since Brahms, who earlier had shown such an interest in the undertaking, had found serious fault with the compositional form of the opera.

Through the dedication of a master waltz to Brahms, however, Johann felt that he could somewhat redress the balance with his friend. Long before the waltz was composed, Strauss had settled upon its title - Seid umschlungen, Millionen - and had even asked Simrock to ensure "a very attractive title page" bearing the words: "Dedicated in friendship to Herr Dr Brahms". The title of the waltz was borrowed from Friedrich Schiller's "Ode an die Freude" (Ode to Joy) - and had been suggested to Johann by his friend Julius Stettenheim, who had requested a waltz of that title for a journalists' ball to be held in Berlin in early 1892. Instead, Strauss chose to use the title for a waltz he had promised Princess Pauline Metternich-Sandor for her grand 'International Exhibition of Music and Theatre', scheduled to open on the Vienna Prater on 7 May 1892. However, when Johann learned that the new waltz would be performed by the Exhibition Orchestra, rather than under his own direction, he preferred to incur the Princess's wrath by conducting the premi�re of Seid umschlungen, Millionen

himself at the Strauss Orchestra's final concert that season, held in the magnificent surroundings of the Great Hall of the Musikverein on 27 March 1892 - a full six weeks before the official opening of the Exhibition. Brahms, by this time aware he was dedicatee of the new work, was present at this first performance and the previous day showed his appreciation by addressing his visiting card to the Strauss home, with the message: "Tomorrow, your most happy and proud listener!" The waltz occasioned rapturous applause and Brahms notified Simrock: "The third time the whole audience was playing along". Underlining his high regard for Brahms, Strauss took the unusual step of personally arranging the piano edition of Seid umschlungen, Millionen - a task normally undertaken by employees of the music publisher - and as such Simrock was able to put the waltz (inscribed merely: "Dedicated to Johannes Brahms") on sale in April 1892. Surprisingly, in Vienna the composition was slow to attract the public's favour. Johann wrote to his brother Eduard: "The Millionenwalzer does not bring the business which Simrock anticipated. Fourteen days ago he told me that he had sold only 6,000 copies. Certainly a very modest result. Of course, the waltz appeared only two and a half months ago". For his part, Eduard took the new work with him on his summer concert tour of Germany, and at the end of May could advise Johann: "Your Millionenwalzer is causing a sensation everywhere; I am playing it in every concert". In the event, the 'Millionenwalzer' even found a place at the International Exhibition when Eduard and the Strauss Orchestra performed it there on 13 September 1892.

Programme notes � 1991 Peter Kemp. The Johann Strauss Society of Great Britain.

The author is indebted to Professor Franz Mailer for his assistance in the preparation of these notes.

Czecho-Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra (Kosice)

The East Slovakian town of Kosice boasts a long and distinguished musical tradition, as part of a province that once provided Vienna with musicians. The State Philharmonic Orchestra is of relatively recent origin and was established in 1968 under the conductor Bystrik Rezucha. Subsequent principal conductors have included Stanislav Macura and Ladislav Slovak, the latter succeeded in 1985 by his pupil Richard Zimmer. The orchestra has toured widely in Eastern and Western Europe and plays an important part in the Kosice Musical Spring and the Kosice International Organ Festival.

For Marco Polo the orchestra has made the first compact disc recordings of rare works by Granville Bantock and Joachim Raff. Writing on the last of these, one critic praised the orchestra for its competence comparable to that of the major orchestras of Vienna and Prague. The orchestra has contributed several successful volumes to the complete compact disc Johann Strauss II and for Naxos has recorded a varied repertoire.

Alfred Walter

Alfred Waller was born in Southern Bohemia in 1929 of Austrian parents.

He studied at the University of Graz and in 1948 was appointed assistant conductor to the Opera of Ravensburg. At the age of 22 he became conductor of the Graz Opera, where he continued until 1965, while serving at Bayreuth as assistant to Hans Knappertsbusch and Karl Bohm. From 1966 until 1969 he was Principal Conductor of the Durban Symphony Orchestra in South Africa, followed by a period of 15 years as General Director of Music in M�nster. In Vienna he has worked as guest conductor at the State Opera and in 1986 was given the title of Professor by the Austrian Government. In 1980 he was awarded the Golden Medal of the International Gustav Mahler Society.

Disc 1

Hoch Osterreich, Op. 371

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Composed by: Johann Strauss II
Conducted by: Alfred Walter

Hoch Osterreich! Marsch, Op. 371 - 2:55

Dorfgeschichten, Op. 47

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Composed by: Johann Strauss II
Conducted by: Alfred Walter

Dorfgeschichten, Walzer im Landlerstyle, Op. 47 - 8:09

Electro-Magnetische , Op. 110

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Composed by: Johann Strauss II
Conducted by: Alfred Walter

Electro-Magnetische Polka, Op. 110 - 2:09

Novellen, Op. 146

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Composed by: Johann Strauss II
Conducted by: Alfred Walter

Novellen, Walzer, Op. 146 - 7:40

Seladon, Op. 48

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Composed by: Johann Strauss II
Conducted by: Alfred Walter

Seladon-Quadrille, Op. 48 - 5:11

Studentenlust, Op. 285

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Composed by: Johann Strauss II
Conducted by: Alfred Walter

Studentenlust, Walzer, Op. 285 - 7:13

Episode, Op. 296

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Composed by: Johann Strauss II
Conducted by: Alfred Walter

Episode, Polka francaise, Op. 296 - 4:53

Rosen aus dem Suden, Op. 388

(more info)

Performed by: Vienna Symphony Orchestra Vienna State Opera Orchestra Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice CSR Symphony Orchestra, Bratislava Johann Strauss Orchestra Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Strauss Festival Orchestra Vienna Volksoper Orchestra Vienna Strauss Orchestra
Composed by: Johann Strauss II
Conducted by: Alfred Walter Jascha Horenstein Yakov Kreizberg Ondrej Lenard Martin Sieghart Jack Rothstein Alfred Scholz Joseph Francek

Rosen aus dem Suden, Walzer, Op. 388 - 8:27

Burschenwanderung, Op. 389

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Composed by: Johann Strauss II
Conducted by: Alfred Walter Johannes Wildner

Burschenwanderung, Polka francaise, Op. 389 - 3:50

Le Premier Jour de Bonheur, Opera de D.F.E. Auber, Quadrille, Op. 327

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Composed by: Johann Strauss II
Conducted by: Alfred Walter

Le Premier Jour de Bonheur, Opera de D.F.E. Auber, Quadrille, Op. 327 - 5:13

Seid umschlungen Millionen, Op. 443

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Composed by: Johann Strauss II
Conducted by: Alfred Walter Johannes Wildner

Seid Umschlungen, Millionen, Walzer, Op. 443 - 9:00

Reviews

Be the first to review this title

FREE SHIPPING on orders
of 5 items or more!

Earn Naxos Rewards Points by opening an account and buying your favorite music today! Create your account here.

See all of our great site features here.