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CD Feature/ V.A.: "Gruß an Wien"

  Tobias

„All is quiet on New Year’s Day“, U2 once proclaimed, but then they weren’t dancing the waltz, were they? Thanks to DJs and musicians from the “Down Beat” movement (and thanks to its great coffee-houses and irresistible Sachertorte, of course), Vienna has recently become a synonym for taking it easy and for relaxing in style. Which is absolutely fine in principle. When driving out those demons of last year, however, you’re in need of something a little more energetic – an espresso rather than a cappucino. Something like this musical greeting in three quarter time, for example.

Recorded on January 1st of last year, “Gruß an Wien” captures a moment of expectation, exaltation and joyous extasy: Peter Guth conducts some of the most noteworthy pieces by some of the city’s greatest names: Strauss (Johann Jr., Johann Sr., Eduard and Josef), von Suppe, Ziehrer and Lehar. Under his aegis, the Strauss Festival Orchester (nomen est omen) plays itself into such a trance that the sparks fly even when merely listening to their performance on CD, as opposed to really being there. Founded to counter “commercial distortions”, the ensemble returns to the raw and rough roots of the music, swaying the swagger and digging up the sweat, the swoon and the sweet kisses. What hits you each time is the emotional landslide, this hence and forth of the hormone levels – there is no dance more hilarious than the Waltz, nor is there one more sentimental. Ildiko Raimondi comes in for several songs and her clear and classic Soprano (you can understand each and every word she sings) are the icing on this delicious cake. Whether fooling around feeling tipsy (“Schwipslied”), revelling in memories of golden days (“Klänge der Heimat”) or playing the naive femme fatale in Lehars seductive “Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß” (“My lips kiss so sweet”), this is a singer who likes to treat her scores as movie scripts. Her contributions might well be the highights of this disc, but it should be noted that the instrumental tracks are hardly less intoxicating. The rhythm pounds adamantly, the melodies work their way into your brain and your body takes over – at their time, this music must have had the same impact as techno had in the late 80s and early 90s.

Everything tells us that both the musicians and the audience, which loves every second of it, must have been sure that 2005 was going to be a great year. They might have been right, they might have been wrong. But however the following 12 months turned out to be, nothing can take away this optimism and happiness, which allowed no doubts and fears. For what it’s worth: All was bright and sunny on this New Year’s Day.

By Tobias Fischer

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