Eduard Strauss (1835-1916)

[albion]

I've always loved nineteenth-century Viennese dance-music, especially that of Lanner, the Strauss family and Carl Michael Ziehrer, and have collected the entire Marco Polo editions of Johann II, Josef and (slowly ongoing) Johan I together with the Ziehrer mini-series and several discs from Germany.

Eduard Strauss always gets scant attention from concert-programmers and record companies in comparison to his elder brothers and is very much the 'unsung' member of the dynasty: it was originally mooted that Marco Polo would eventually encompass his surviving works (many are lost, destroyed by his own hand along with countless manuscripts by his father and brothers) in a dedicated edition, but that now seems increasingly beyond the realms of possibility with the Johann I edition slowly grinding its course.

Accordingly I've collected just about every recording of Eduard's music that I can - Boskovsky only covered a handful of the polkas with EMI but there are several highly attractive waltzes included in Chandos' three-volume Vienna Premiere series. It's always pleasing when Eduard's name turns up in one of New Year Concerts - but unfortunately this year Mariss Jansons butchered the poor old Carmen Quadrille (1876) by attempting to recreate the tempi adopted in an opera house rather than a ballroom (quadrilles suffer enormously at the hands of unsympathetic conductors, vide. most of Johannes Wildner's interpretations in the Johann II Marco Polo edition with their scrambled dash-for-the-finishing-line accelerations in the final section).

At the end of the 1970s-early 1980s Intercord produced four gatefold double-LP albums devoted to lesser-known music by each of the four most prominent Strauss-family members and performed by the Vienna Chamber Orchestra under Paul Angerer. As most of the repertoire on the Eduard Strauss album is otherwise-unavailable and as this situation is unlikely to alter in the near future, I have uploaded my copy in the Austrian Composers section.

[TerraEpon]

Well I for one appreciate unheard E. Strauss -- Johann is a particular favorite, and I also am a big fan of Hans Christian Lumbye and Emile Waldteful, who were the Danish and French masters of the genre respectively.

[semloh]

Great to hear that among the serious works that plumb the mysteries of life, love, death and the universe, we still have room for the pure pleasure which these composers bring. I suspect many people came to appreciate the former through early exposure to the latter! 

In my case, as a child, an old 78 of Waldteufel played by Harry Horlick & his Orchestra alerted me to the fact that classical music could be fun.  Inevitably, I also associated the record with the pleasurable bedtime drink! 

[Paul Barasi]

I was struck by Eddy's waltzes some years back and sought them out. I played through them last weekend but somehow wasn't as charmed as before and found it hard to find which I had really liked. Maybe Mit Extrapost polka op259 + Um die Wette polka op241. Rothstein conducted a lot of those I have. The only Lumbye I really like is Dream Pics. 

I feel JSII is well rivalled by efforts from others in the Hapsburg Empire. Oh, there are so many composers and works, but I especially enjoy these: Sphären-Klänge waltz (brother Josef); Valse Triste (Nedbal); Abend am Meer (Vacka); Hail to the Clod Country (Flegl); Der letzte Gruss, Bad'ner Madl'n + Maienzauber Waltz [Komzák]; Bear with Sore Head, Florentine March, Libesflammen waltz + the irresistible Entry of the Gladiators (Fucik.)

[FBerwald]

The Johann Strauss society has just announced that "Our milestone project with Naxos is now successfully 'in the can'" with the release of this CD .....



https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.225369

Hopefully an Eduard Strauss Edition is on the way.

[semloh]

It's good to be reminded that there is a lot more to Eduard than the fun Bahn Frei.

[sdtom]

Being honest I got no pleasure from this release. It could have been Johann and I couldn't tell the difference

[Alan Howe]

Must have been good music, then?

[Alan Howe]

Samples from this highly attractive CD can be found here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strauss-Centenary-Celebration-John-Georgiadis/dp/B073ZP4CT8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503179200&sr=8-1&keywords=eduard+strauss

[Gareth Vaughan]

Yes. To my ears it does sound very like Johann.  But I don't care. It's all quite delicious and I love it!

[Alan Howe]

Quite.

[TerraEpon]

It doesn't have Eduard's most well known pieces....which is good, because I think there's exactly two pieces I own on it....so a very obvious buy for me.

[sdtom]

I'll listen to it again

[Byron]

It is a great pleasure to have finally a modern recording entirely devoted to Eduard Strauss' music. The last and then only album with his compositions was the intercord double LP with the fantastic interpretations by Paul Angerer.
It is not without irony that the execution/interpretation of Edi's so consequently ignored compositions here belong to the best ones which Marco Polo issued by the Strauss family. (Especially sadly and in a wicked way treated are a lot of items by Johann II but also a too big number of oeuvres by Josef)
The only small regret concerns the more or less slightly cut waltzes. (Obviously to get room for as much pieces as possible on one single CD...)
The opinion I can't share here is that Eduard should sound like Johann II. For my ears Edi has clearly distinguishable melodies and orchestrations.
Whereas in very, very rare and singular cases I find it not that clear whether we have a waltz by Johann II or by Josef if you wouldn't know.
Anyway, I hope for other Eduard Strauss rarities on CDs to come!

[semloh]

Hurrah - more to add to my Strauss collection!