Odds and ends.
John Austin | Kangaroo Ground, Australia | 01/27/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The producers of this Johann Strauss Jnr Edition evidently decided to lump together various minor, unfinished, and largely forgotten items and allocate them to the last two volumes in the series. Of all members of the Viennese Strauss Family, Johann Jnr seems to have achieved the most consistently high level of achievement, but it is rarely glimpsed in the items assembled here. An exception, of course, is the bravura vocal waltz "Frühlingsstimmen", performed here in a complete nine-minute version. The soprano is Marilyn Hill Smith, heard also in several other items, including the much less interesting vocal waltz, "Klug Gretelein", which she was the first singer to record several years earlier on the Chandos label. Christian Pollack, responsible for arranging and orchestrating several of the items, again demonstrates that he is one of the better conductors participating in this series, and the sound quality of this recording made in Bratislava in 1994 is rich and warm."
Enjoyable portion of J. Strauss Jr. works
Philly Gal | Philadelphia, PA USA | 01/22/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"We invested in the entire J. Strauss Jr. series, of which this CD is Volume 50. Since the offerings on this CD are a very small part of his huge body of work, it can't be expected that every single piece be an outstanding measure of his quality as a composer. The Frühlingsstimmen waltz (track 10) is truly lovely and is certainly the most popular melody on this CD, but we should not discount the more obscure works included here. It appears to us that the best reasons for producing the 50-volume Strauss series is to provide listeners with the full range of the composer's prodigious abilities, and satisfy aficionados of this musical genre. On the whole, all the CDs in this extensive series are very enjoyable, with excellent sound quality, and we highly recommend them."
Track Listings (16) - Disc #1