Vienna. Music of the Strausses and Weber.(Sound Recording Review)

Vienna. Music of the Strausses and Weber. Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. JVC JMXR24025.

I love this stuff. I love waltzes, the Strausses, Fritz Reiner, and the XRCD remasterings from JVC. What I don't like is the cost. But with an ever-diminishing list of audiophile material available to the music lover, I suppose we should savor what little we have and be willing to pay the price.

Here are the upsides to the JVC: I like the music, of course, and the way Reiner plays it. Like most everything the man conducted, it comes out fresher, more pointed, more secure, and more clarified than ever before. Sure, Boskovsky put more bounce, more verve, into it, but Reiner adds the element of purity. I like the selections, three Strauss, Jr., waltzes: "Morning Papers," "Emperor Waltz," and "On the Beautiful Blue Danube"; his brother Josef Strauss's waltz, "Village Swallows"; a Weber waltz, "Invitation to the Dance"; and Richard Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier Waltzes." And I like JVC's elegant packaging. Usually, I wouldn't care for the Digipak approach. I always worry that I'm going to damage a part of the center spindle and then be without a case altogether. But JVC's packaging is quite robust, and ...