Waltz from Suite de danse

When Lehár wrote his Suite de danse he was not far short of twice the age he was when he wrote Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow), the Viennese operetta that made his fame and fortune. But, while there are differences in style, he is recognisably the same composer. He still has the genius for waltz tunes that endeared him to the public at the beginning of his career in Vienna thirty-five years earlier. To begin with, in the rhapsodic introduction, Suite de danse sounds like the work of a composer stimulated by the energy of the Broadway musical and infected by a taste for the colours of the Hollywood film score. At an early stage after the opening fanfare, however, there is a glimpse of an old-fashioned waltz tune which, on its definitive presentation in the central section of the piece, clearly demonstrates its descent from Gold and Silver or the Merry Widow Waltz. Although Lehár offers other waltz ideas here, including one that inspires a sentimental violin solo, that first tune is clearly his favourite, not least perhaps because it proves robust enough to take the Broadway treatment too. At the end of the work, in a bizarre development not included in today’s performance, the waltz tune is transformed into a march.