The Philharmonics - Waltzes by Johann Strauss arranged by Arnold Schoenberg Alban Berg and Anton Webern

Product Description The Philharmonics, the ensemble founded by members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, fill the Café Sperl with some of the most authentically Viennese sounds imaginable the Strauss waltzes that Schoenberg, Berg and Webern arranged and performed in May 1921 to raise funds for their pioneering Society for Private Musical Performances. This is music the players have in their blood, and they maintain the echtatmosphere with Godowskys tribute to the city, Alt-Wien and a clutch of Kreisler gems, rounding the programme off with a new piece by the ensembles leader Tibor Ková, based on traditional Jewish melodies and Mahler themes, Yiddische Mame. BONUS: How Schoenberg came to arrange waltzes by Strauss Review The brilliant idea here is to perform inside a historic Viennese coffee house - the 130-year-old Cafe Sperl in the Gumpendorfer Strasse... members of the Vienna Philharmonic...perform before customers and waiters going about their everyday business…all without interference to the actual music-making. The five Strauss waltzes are proficiently played and idiomatically phrased, and enjoyment is heightened by the further inclusion of three joyous pieces by Kreisler and an arrangement of Leopold Godowsky's evocative Alt-Wien... the whole represents an altogether admirable demonstration of how DVD can combine enlightenment and pleasure to joyous effect. --Gramophone Magazine, Andrew Lamb, March 2012 This DVD offers these waltzes and other works listed above in stunning performances by nine members of the Vienna Philharmonic including concertmaster Tibor Kovac. Performances are elegant indeed, audio is superb and the photography almost puts the viewer inside the instruments. --ClassicalCDReview.com, Robert Benson, December 2011