CD REVIEW -
ANDRÉ RIEU
AND HIS JOHANN STRAUSS ORCHESTRA
THANK YOU, Johann Strauss!
6 152000 689625 [3
hours 6 minutes]
For those who,
like your reviewer, eagerly await
the annual release of quality
light music from the much-loved
Dutch maestro, André Rieu and
his wonderful Johann Strauss
Orchestra, will this year be
delighted by what surely must be
the best budget buy of 2025. Not
one CD … not a double CD
… but three CDs and a DVD
for a tad under £25 postage paid
from eBay.
All these are in
commemoration of the Viennese
master composer Johann Strauss
the Younger or Johann ll's birth
200 years ago. He was incredibly
productive, composing over 500
works, including waltzes (not
called "The Waltz King"
for nothing), polkas, quadrilles
and operettas.
Rieu has said:
"There is a reason I named
my orchestra after him, and
that's because I can't think of
any other composer who has
brought so much joy to the world
with his music." And today's
world is certainly in need of
some joy.
So, here are 39 CD
tracks: from Sphärenklänge
to Wer uns Getraut on
CD1, Fruhlingsstimmenwalzer
to Schatwalzer on CD2
and Persischer Marsch to
Radetzky Marsch on CD3,
the last track being a
recognition of its composer, the
great man's father, Johann
Strauss the Elder or Johann l.
Johann ll's even younger
brothers, Josef and Eduard, are
also represented.
The only
non-Strauss family work is Hereinspaziert
by Carl Michael Ziehrer in Wiener
Melange. If you don't know
some of the pieces by name, you
might recognise the tunes.
English translations would have
been appreciated.
The 49-minute
'Bonus DVD!' has nine tracks
mainly of the most well-known
works like Rosen aus dem
Suden, Tritsch-Tratsch Polka,
Kaiserwalzer and An der
Schonen Blauen Donau.
All the music has
been arranged by Rieu and there
is an eight-member female choir
– all named along with the
musicians in the liner notes
– on some.
The latest figures
show that Rieu and his Orchestra
have sold over 40 million albums
to date with more than 700,000
fans attending their concerts
each year, making him one of the
most successful live performers
of our time.
If this superb
box-set were a pop release every
track would be described as
bangin'. It will give cheer to
the multitude of Rieu admirers
world-wide and anyone fortunate
to receive it as a gift.
©
Peter Burt, November 2025
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