DANCES OF OLD VIENNA - VIENNA MOZART ENSEMBLE, BOSKOVSKY ENSEMBLE, I MUSICI (2 CDS)

The musicologist, Alexander Weinmann, made these arrangements for Boskovsky and his colleagues in the Vienna Philharmonic: a select band of eight musicians. Together they journey in high spirits from late Mozart through Schubert and the always under-appreciated Joseph Lanner to some little-known gems of Johann Strauss the Elder (the ‘Exeter-Polka’ and ‘Tivoli-Rutsch Walzer’ among them) and even a tip of the hat to his son’s ‘Liebeslieder Walzer’.

A second Decca album fills out a picture of early nineteenth-century Vienna: ‘Dances and Romances’ of Beethoven, in which Boskovsky takes the solo violin parts with his renowned ease and sweetness of tone. This generous anthology is completed by another impeccably stylish chamber ensemble LP from the 1960s, I Musici playing Schubert at his most good-natured, including the expansive Rondo D438 which was the nearest he came to writing a violin concerto.

CD 1
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Kontretanz in C major, ‘La Bataille’, KV 535
2 Menuette, KV 604
5 Kontretänze ‘Non piu andrai’, KV 609

JOHANN STRAUSS I
Jugendfeuer-Galopp, Op. 9

JOHANN STRAUSS II
Liebeslieder-Walzer, Op. 114

FRANZ SCHUBERT
4 Walzer
4 Ecossaisen

JOSEF STRAUSS
Die guten alten Zeiten – Walzer, Op. 26

JOHANN STRAUSS I
Indianer-Galopp, Op. 111
Tivoli-Rutsch-Walzer, Op. 39
Exeter-Polka, Op. 249

JOSEF LANNER
Pesther-Walzer, Op. 93

FRANZ SCHUBERT
4 Walzer & 2 Ecossaisen

JOSEF LANNER
Jägers Lust – Galopp, Op. 82

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
6 Deutsche Tänze, KV 567

CD 2
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
12 Kontretänze, WoO 14
Deutsche Tänze, WoO 8 (Nos. 2, 3 & 8)
Mödlinger Tänze, WoO 17
Violin Romance No. 1
Violin Romance No. 2

FRANZ SCHUBERT
Rondo for Violin and Orchestra in A major, D.438*
Five Minuets and Six Trios, D.89*

Wiener Mozart Ensemble (CD1: 1–3, 14)
Boskovsky Ensemble (CD1: 4–13)
Willi Boskovsky, violin/conductor
Felix Ayo, violin
I Musici (CD2: 6–11)

*FIRST RELEASE ON CD