These fifteen "coffee house" dances are beautifully
performed by the Tanzquartett Wien with a stylishness that must stem
from their membership of various Viennese orchestras. All that is missing
is the clink of coffee cups and the swish of long dresses as the dancers
swirl around.
And that is the very reason why this CD must be declared
one for the specialist or for those seeking high class aural wallpaper.
Over an hour of two violins, a viola and a double bass, playing authentic
arrangements of music often composed for larger forces, is a bit relentless
if not taken in small doses. For example Johann Strauss II’s great waltz
Vienna Blood, which ends the disc, has none of the huge swirling
thrill that it has in full orchestral dress. It ends up sounding merely
sweet, which is not the whole story.
There is not a dud track on the entire disc but, a
big 'but', it all ends up sounding the much same. This may be in part
due to the rather close recording which, whilst clean enough, does remove
any acoustic that may have been imparted by the Moyzes Hall. As a result
I felt slightly battered rather than seduced. The same closeness gives
the first violin a rather steely edge which just might disturb listeners
using less than very smooth systems, and it also tends to soften the
double bass such that I was wishing to hear more of it. It should not
be forgotten that all of these pieces were written for dancing or taking
coffee and cake, and not for pure listening, a point made in the excellent
and very thorough notes. The picture on the cover at least hints at
the real situation in which this, often very beautiful, music needs
to be performed.
Dave Billinge
Tanzquartett Wien