An Evening of Strauss - From Reiner to Rieu

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One of my 50 cent purchases just came in the mail. An RCA Red Seal cd of Fritz Reiner playing Strauss waltzes. Fantastically played and recorded. From there I ended up enjoying some Andre Rieu doing much of the same. While I'll give the nod to Reiner musically, Rieu certainly makes it a lot more fun!
 
One of my 50 cent purchases just came in the mail. An RCA Red Seal cd of Fritz Reiner playing Strauss waltzes. Fantastically played and recorded. From there I ended up enjoying some Andre Rieu doing much of the same. While I'll give the nod to Reiner musically, Rieu certainly makes it a lot more fun!
Reiner for content, Rieu for style. Sounds about right to me.

I do a Strauss Ball gig in late January every year, debutants and whole nine yards. Tons of fun as I always play 1st violin on those gigs. Back in the 50s and 60s they used to get enough participants to fill Cobo Hall, now about 200 and half them are Arthur Murray ringers. I refuse to do the ooom-chucks any more for any money, lol. Just too much pain involved. Remember those exercises in gym class where you had to hold your arms out straight at shoulder height and make little circles? Yeah, that's what Strauss 2nd violin and viola parts feel like. Now you will feel both pity and pain when you see the New Year's Eve broadcasts from Vienna. Really.
 
You need to work on those sales skills a bit. You aren't making it sound any more appealing. :)
I'm afraid that on this one I feel I'm being more forthright than salesmanship might prefer. The event is in a hall in the middle of nowhere 22 miles outside Detroit. I guess all of the Austrians escaped to the 'burbs at some time? I get a kick out of playing the gig as the debutants and all of the ballroom dancing folks make for a fine evening, though. Actually it is fun to play the music for the purpose it was intended instead of just in a concert setting. Small orchestra, dance band style. I still haven't managed to teach them how to do the delayed 2nd beat thing properly (there is instinct and experience involved), but other than that it is a bit of a romp. I was going to post a couple of pics fro last year's event, but Flickr seems to be offline. Maybe tomorrow...
 
You just nailed one of my pet peeves of most Strauss recordings. Usually, they are played as classical pieces, not as what they actually were: somewhat scandalous dance music played by and for energetic young people. They end up being dull and ponderous, if still melodic.

That event sounds like great fun actually!
 
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