Strauss, J, II: Vergnügungszug, Op. 281 (The Pleasure-Train, Le Train de Plaisir)

The Johann Strauss Ensemble of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra is a replica of the original orchestra with which Johann Strauss Jr. began his career in Vienna in 1844. The main purpose of the ensemble is to play the music of the Strauss dynasty, Joseph Lanner and the dance music of the Viennese classical composers in authentic style. This CD invites you to a soirée of music by the Strauss family.

Does bankruptcy have its entertaining side? In 1921 at least, to rescue their Society for Musical Private Performances from insolvency, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, and Arnold Schönberg penned adaptations of Johann Strauss’s most popular waltzes. The benefit concert and the following auction of their scores were very successful, and while the society in the end could not be the saved, the four waltz scores have survived.

The Thomas Christian Ensemble of Vienna has now brought together these unusual arrangements for the first time on CD, together with contemporary arrangements by Manfred Trojahn and Hans-Peter Dott.

Recorded:

Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 4 September 1962 (Symphony No.12)

Royal Albert Hall, London, 10 December 1980 (Symphony No.6)

Royal Albert Hall, London, 14 August 1981 (J. Strauss II, Youmans)

This CD contains the first Western performance of Shostakovich's vast Symphony No.12 'The Year 1917' given in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh in September 1962 with the composer in attendance.

This historic event was recorded by the BBC in excellent stereo and follows the premiere, also given in the Usher Hall the same year, of Shostakovich's Symphony No.4 (BBCL 4220-2)

The coupling of Shostakovich's high spirited Symphony No.6 showcases Rozhdestvensky as music director of the BBCSO in 1980, this time from the Royal Festival Hall in superb stereo.

Three Shostakovich arrangements have been added as bonuses including the famous treatment given to Youman's Tea for Two.

This CD brings together compositions from slightly more than a hundred years, featuring treatments of the ‘railroad’ theme which are now idyllic or impressionistic, now realistic or even smacking of social criticism, but in classical form.The variety of forms and wealth of ideas in these compositions from France, Sweden, the U.S.A., Brazil, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland and Germany even surprised the conductor on this CD, Jir¡i Stárek – whose father was a railroad worker …

Such diverse musicians as the Strauss family dynasty in Vienna, Antonín Dvorák and Arthur Honegger, were all infected with railroad fever. The feeling of intoxication induced by sheer speed, the implacability of mechanical forces, the menace inherent in acceleration, the clatter of the wheels, the whistling and hooting of the valves, but also the stillness following a thunderous journey – all these are found with varying degrees of accentuation in the colorful and exciting orchestral works featured on this disc.