Donner und Blitzen

Thunder and Lightning, Op.324 - polka

Is Thunder and Lightning the most popular of Johann II’s polkas because it has the best tunes or because it has the best title? The answer must be that it has both, together with a series of brilliantly witty observations on the weather - a roll of thunder in the opening bars followed by a flurry of evasive activity, a hectic middle section where the storm rages in lightning cymbal clashes and bass-drum thunder claps, and a final section which betrays not the least sign of a dampening of the irrepressible Viennese genius for having a good time.