Radetzky

Few artist families dominated the light music scene of the 19th century in the same way as the Strauss dynasty. And even 150 years after the death of the "Waltz King" Johann Strauss senior and over 100 years after the passing of his son Johann Strauss junior, their dance compositions still pack concert halls around the world with throngs of eager spectators. In 1999, the Strauss anniversary year, the Vienna Philharmonic came up with a very special approach to honouring the musical father and son: An open-air concert in the heart of Vienna featuring works by Johann Strauss senior who, together with his son, cemented the reputation of this beautiful city on the Danube as the world capital of waltz. An audience of almost 8000 people was treated to the captivating sounds of their immortal melodies in the imposing atmosphere of the Heldenplatz (Heroes' Square) in the Austrian capital. Spanish tenor José Carreras and the Hungarian soprano Andrea Rost, long-time favourites with Vienna opera fans, were both invited to sing arias and duets at the „Johann Strauss Gala“ under the baton of open-air veteran Zubin Mehta. Inspired by the enthusiasm of the crowd, Mehta was moved to play the "Radetzky March" as an encore – the traditional closing piece at every Strauss concert.

Johann Baptist Strauss II, also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (German: Johann Strauß Sohn), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well as a violinist. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in the 19th century. Some of Johann Strauss's most famous works include "The Blue Danube", "Kaiser-Walzer" (Emperor Waltz), "Tales from the Vienna Woods", "Frühlingsstimmen", and the "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka". Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the best known.

This album is a collection of recordings he left with Krauss recording from 1929 to 1954.
His main work is opera recording, as well as recording and choral work as a concert conductor, and his accompanied songs, and a variety of his recordings to meet a variety of.

A luxurious and authoritative 64CD orchestral and concerto set, celebrating one of the world’s great orchestras and their 64-year relationship with Decca Classics.
Few labels can claim to be so associated with a city as inextricably as Decca is with Vienna. No history of classical recordings would be complete without a chapter documenting how both Decca and the WP worked to perfect the art of recording in the city’s great concert halls, most notably in the famous Sofiensaal.

This Sony-made 30CD classical music collection covers almost all classical music, from the early Baroque period represented by Bach to the schools of classical music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms represent romantic, national and even modern musical schools led by Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, etc. representative, everything wonderful and vivid.

As always, the challenge presented by this most traditional of concerts is to balance coherent and thoughtful exploration of the less familiar items in the catalog of 19th-century Straussian, Austrian, and central-European popular music with fresh readings of the chestnuts, including, of course, the obligatory last two encores on the program. In this case, Barenboim guides his audience, appropriately, through a travelogue of the Mediterranean and the East. Remarkably, 2009 marked the first time that Daniel Barenboim had ever been invited to conduct this event, perhaps a reminder of how seldom his commitments to Berlin and Chicago have allowed him to appear in this most southern of Austrian cities.