Waltz Time

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 555, 10 February 1950, Page 11

Waltz Time

"HE cinema’s ideal of romance has left a trail of sticky sentiment in many places. Personally, I do not care much what they do to South Sea WVagoons, Wild Western States, or regions South of the Border, but the defilement of Old Vienna is a different matter, for with it they have defiled the waltz. As a result it is hardly worth one’s reputation to be found listening to Strauss these days. And this is a great pity, for a Strauss waltz, if properly played, is the very perfection of one type of light music, Too often, however, we hear only unworthy arrangements for popular orchestras, where the tune is monotonously insisted on, its. accents lingered out for a supposed romantic thrill and the true spirit of the piece lost. But discriminating listeners will find great pleasure in listening to the postwar recordings of the Stauss waltzes by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Karajan. These

show that the great tradition of Viennese performance has not been lost I listened recently, too; to a performance from 4YA of the old Tales from _ the Vienna Woods, by Krips and the Philharmonia Orchestra, played with a crisp perfection of rhythm and restraint of effect which even our grandfathers, to whom. we owe this music, could. surely not have bettered. |

K.J.

S.