Lanner: Die Schönbrunner Waltzer, Op. 200

Seen by millions on TV worldwide, the Wiener Philharmoniker’s New Year's Concert from Vienna is one of the best-known classical events in the world. - A perennial best-seller with 102,000 CDs and 45,000 DVDs sold in 2010.

The New Year's Concert, presented in the glittering Musikverein, features a charming programme that offers perennial favourites alongside some intriguing Strauss premieres. The complete programme will be announced beginning of November.

The 2011 concert will be conducted by Austrian-born Franz Welser-Möst - newly installed as the music director of the Vienna State Opera and a favourite with Viennese concertgoers.

An album of lively waltzes and other dance music, consummately performed by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Concentus Musicus Wien.

With rarely-heard dance pieces by Mozart, Lanner, and Johann Strauss I.

On his new album, Walzer Revolution, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Concentus Musicus Wien turn their attention to a selection of dances by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Josef Lanner and Johann Strauss the Elder himself, in order to give it a new interpretation in the spirit intended by the composers.

Harnoncourt, who more than any other conductor of our time represents a revolution in the way works are performed and in the reception of music, traces the line from the dances of Mozart to 19th-century dances that were profoundly characteristic of the society of that time.

Thanks to his typical practice of performing the works in a historical manner, he succeeds in making this dance music an authentic listening experience that is constantly denied to us by the usual modern orchestration. The purpose of the resulting album is not only to convey the true joy of listening but also to narrate music history.

Classic FM is inviting you to the dance with its brand new double album Waltzing Classics, the ultimate collection of your favourite waltzes and other dances. This wonderful album is packed with the world’s most famous dancing pieces, with waltzes including Khachaturian’s ‘Waltz from Masquerade Ball’, Strauss’ ‘The Blue Danube’, and Meyerbeer’s ‘Skater’s Waltz’. Also included are many other famous dances, including Piazzolla’s fiery ‘Libertango’, Herold’s mischievous ‘Clog Dance’, Prokofiev’s powerful ‘Dance of The Knights’, Ziehrer’s elegant ‘Losslassen’ Polka, and beautiful pieces from the world of ballet including Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Nutcracker’ and ‘Swan Lake’. Waltzing Classics transports the listener to a magical world of the classical ballroom and will appeal to lovers of dancing and classical music alike.

These recordings date from the fifties and this CD is part of the Archipel Desert Island Collection. The Trapp is a world premiere recording.