Scherzo Overture: Fröhliches Spiel (Frolic)

After the First World War the centre of operetta in German tended to shift from Vienna to Berlin. It was there that Nico Dostal, though thoroughly Austrian by birth and musical upbringing, set up a long career in Germany with Clivia in 1933. After the Second World War, however, he returned to Austria, continuing to write operettas but orchestral and film music too. A master of the art of, as he put it, “giving zest, peace and joy,” he wrote his frolicking Scherzo Overture at a particularly happy time in the 1950s when he and his family settled near Salzburg. The situation – “Now life begins again” – is vividly reflected in the cheerful activity of woodwind at the start of the piece and then, near the middle, a soaring melody for strings which is to make a triumphant return on brass near the end.