Wien bleibt Wien (2007)

This small-ensemble performance of Viennese waltzes -- the music is played on two violins, a viola, a cello, and a string bass -- isn't claimed to be an authentic performance; the waltz as it increasingly developed depended on complex orchestration and contrasts between solo and group. Nevertheless, as annotator Hans Winking points out, the symphonic extravaganzas one can see all over the world on television on New Year's Eve are themselves mostly arrangements, at least when music by earlier waltz composers like Joseph ... Read More

This small-ensemble performance of Viennese waltzes -- the music is played on two violins, a viola, a cello, and a string bass -- isn't claimed to be an authentic performance; the waltz as it increasingly developed depended on complex orchestration and contrasts between solo and group. Nevertheless, as annotator Hans Winking points out, the symphonic extravaganzas one can see all over the world on television on New Year's Eve are themselves mostly arrangements, at least when music by earlier waltz composers like Joseph Lanner and Johann Strauss I is being played. And of course the waltz permeated Viennese life for decades, with popular waltzes undergoing arrangements for every ensemble found within the magnificent Ring Road. Thus this performance is conflating what are really two separate questions, but it's generally an enjoyable change of pace for anyone who feels musical arteries clogged with the Schlag of Mehta (or crème fouettée of Rieu). This disc sticks mostly to waltzes from the... Read Less