Waltzes.

Strauss, Johann II: Waltzes. Willi Boskovsky, the Johann Strauss Orchestra of Vienna. EMI Double Forte 7243 5 74311 2 5 (2-disc set).

According to everything I've read about Willi Boskovsky, his orchestras didn't particularly like him as a conductor. From playing violin with the Vienna Philharmonic he went to leading it in Strauss waltzes in the 1950s and audiences adored him, which is all that mattered. His Decca recordings from those early days are still the yardsticks by which all Strauss waltzes are now measured. By the early seventies he was recording for EMI with the Johann Strauss Orchestra of Vienna, and he re-recorded most of the major Strauss repertoire for them. Then, when digital entered the scene, he re-recorded them yet again! What we have in this EMI Double Forte album is a collection of nineteen of Strauss's most famous waltzes from the early eighties.

Interestingly, these digital recordings are more sprightly and open than his analogue recordings with the same orchestra had been a decade before. The digital sound is less warm and less full, true, but the sound is more detailed and carries with it little obvious digital brightness or edginess. More important, the performances themselves are a fraction quicker and more spontaneous, a total delight in every way, and almost matching his Decca renderings.

Among the waltzes are practically everything you've ever heard of: "The Blue Danube," of course, "Roses from the South," "Vienna Blood," "Voices of Spring," "Artist's Life," "Tales from the Vienna Woods," "Emperor Waltz," "Morning Papers," "Accelerations," "Lagoon Waltz," "Du und Du," "Wine, Women and Song," "Danube Maiden," and a few you might not have heard of like "Literary Essay," "The Leading Article," "Pamphlets," and "Flight of Fancy."

It's a terrific collection of waltzes at an incredibly reasonable price. One minor concern, though. The booklet lists "Tales from the Vienna Woods" as being recorded with Rudi Knabl on zither, and the booklet article notes the piece "with its important part for the zither." But not here; there's not a zither in sight or sound. The booklet correctly lists the work's recording date as 1982, but in that recording Boskovsky chose to bypass the zither and use a violin. EMI must have been thinking of Boskovsky's 1985 recording, which I had on hand, where he reinstated the instrument with Mr. Knabl playing it. I can only guess that the mix-up was an oversight on EMI's part, a confusion not hard to understand given that Boskovsky recorded "Tales" at least four times in stereo: 1963, 1972, 1982, and 1985. I prefer the zither, but other than that there is no reason not to cherish the set.