Andre Kostelanetz and his Orchestra, "Strauss Waltzes"

The waltz could well be the perfect form of classical music for those who grew up on rock ’n’ roll. Waltzes are short, danceable – in their way – and engaging.

They’re also short. Did I mention that?

Probably most importantly, waltzes translate easily into soundtracks of short animated films. I’m pretty sure I first became aware of Johann Strauss not through some cultural program at grade school, but because of the Looney Toons bit where Elmer Fudd plays a badly dressed conductor:



This is also at least one instance where a masterpiece gets improvement. I can’t even listen to “Blue Danube” anymore without replacing those little two-note bursts with “quack-quack, quack-quack.”

Why do I mention all of this? Because of this album: “Strauss Waltzes” by Andre Kostelanetz and his Orchestra, which was recorded in 1959. Frankly, I think the couple in the cover photo look better than expected, for a 51-year-old album. If you look closely you’ll see that the jewelry gets a separate credit. Heh.

What’s most surprising is how well the recording held up. It’s not perfect: Since I started this blog, no album has been more than 30 years old, and none has shown the wear that “Strauss Waltzes” does, in terms of scratches and pops. But the record doesn’t skip or repeat, which is good. The fidelity is also crisp. We’re not dealing with a full orchestra, so the dynamic demands are not as great.

At the same time, the background noises come across, even in the album’s more bombastic moments.

To say that Strauss had a knack for writing waltzes is like saying that Wilt Chamberlain had a knack for shooting baskets; the guy (Strauss) wrote more than 100 of them in his life. Some of his best ones were part of larger works, such as the waltzes from the operettas “The Gypsy Baron” (above) and “Die Fledermaus.” But even standing alone, his waltzes are fun, accessible examples of the romantic movement that was the hallmark of classical music in the 1800s.

The album’s liner notes indicate that Strauss’s waltzes are intimately linked to Vienna, the city that he loved and which loved him back.

“Through the poetic, lyric measures of the Strauss’ waltzes we seem to see the ballrooms of Vienna lighted by hundreds of candles and filled with graceful couples; … above all we are aware of the warmth and magnetism of a vibrant, radiant city.”

Maybe. I didn’t get such imagery listening to the album; but then, my knowledge of Vienna is mostly informed by the novelist John Irving, who wrote about starving bears in the city zoo wandering the streets looking for prey after the end of World War II.

But that’s the beauty of the waltz: It’s such an elegant, three-step dance that can be appreciated without the deep well of musical knowledge you might need for, say, opera, to appreciate. What you need to know is this: Strauss wrote short, lively waltzes that you can dance to, if you’re of the ruffle-and-ball-gown set, or just enjoy if you’re like the rest of us.

Composer Andre Kostelanetz died in 1980. You can still find his recordings easily enough, though. “Strauss Waltzes” is available online for $1 in some places if you want the vinyl experience. Amazon.com has links to a discontinued version of the CD, or an import that, as far as I can tell, has many of the same songs on it.