Auf der Jagd

Just as the ballroom supplied operetta with some of its most successful numbers, usually in the form of waltzes or polkas, so operetta replenished the ballroom repertoire with selections of its most successful numbers, usually in the form of waltzes or polkas. Rosen aus dem Süden (“Roses from the South”), one of the most sophisticated of all Viennese medley waltzes, is made up of five tunes from the seventh of Johann II’s operettas, Das Spitzentuch der Königin (“The Queen’s Lace Handkerchief”), which was first performed at the Theater an der Wien in 1880. Its main theme is from the hit song of the show, Wo die wilde Rose erblüht (“Where the wild rose blooms”). The quick polka Auf der Jagd (“At the Hunt”) - a title which invites a particularly colourful use of horns and trumpets - comes from a Strauss operetta much admired by Brahms, Cagliostro in Wien (“Cagliostro in Vienna”) and Wo unsere Fahne weht (“Wherever our flag flies”) is a stirring march from the last of Johann II’s sixteen operettas, Die Göttin der Vernunft (“The Goddess of Reason”).