About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

All the world loves a waltz, as Erich Kunzel and his Cincinnati Pops proved with their bestselling albums Ein Straussfest and Ein Straussfest II. But lest you think that all Vienna loved was waltzes, the latest outing from Kunzel and his orchestra, Viennafest, is here to remind you that the 19th-century Viennese were also crazy about marches, polkas, operettas, and maudlin drinking songs. When a coloratura sang the melody in the premiere of Johann Strauss Jr.'s "Voices of Spring" waltz -- here reenacted with a glorious twitter by soprano Tracy Dahl -- the first Viennese audience wasn't too happy. They preferred polkas punctuated with pistol shots, cracking whips, horses neighing, and steam engine whistles. So Johann and his family members happily obliged with fiercely fast polkas with names like "At the Double" and "At Full Steam." When Richard Wagner said that the waltz was the Viennese narcotic, perhaps he was as yet unacquainted with the amphetamine known as the polka. After the Golden Age of the Strausses came a Silver Age, when the emphasis turned to operettas that still had their share of great dance music. The Austrian fascination with the Hungarian part of the empire also secured the careers of Franz Lehár and Emmerich Kálmán, who churned out numerous operettas between them, flavored with their own brands of gypsy-tinged exoticism. But listen to Silver-Ager Lehár interweave his more modern style with a tribute to his precursors in the "Gold and Silver" waltz. As the composer of The Merry Widow, Lehár was well aware that although other dances might have their day in the sun, the great waltzes were at the heart of it all. Emily King, Barnes & Noble

Customer Reviews

• Listener Rating: