Furioso Polka, Op.260 (edited by Max Schönherr)

Johann Strauss II (1825-1899)

Furioso Polka, Op.260 (edited by Max Schönherr)

One of the least likely of Johann II’s many enterprises was the seasons of summer concerts - ten of them between 1856 and 1865, two more in 1869 and 1886 - which he directed in the Vauxhall Pavilion in Pavlovsk Park near St Petersburg. As the result of a deal with the Tsarskoye-Selo Railway Company, which was eager to publicize its line between St Petersburg and Pavlovsk, the Russian audience had the privilege of being the first to hear such favourite pieces as the Tritsch-Tratsch and Pizzicato Polkas, an unknown composer called Tchaikovsky had his first opportunity to hear his music performed in public, and Johann Strauss made a small fortune in roubles. Written for the Pavlovsk season of 1861, the Furioso Polka has an appropriately Russian-dance flavour to its bustling opening theme. Not that, in the increasingly frenetic galop that follows, any dancer would have the time to notice such stylistic niceties.