Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald

Johann Strauss II

Tales from the Vienna Woods, Op.325- waltz

One of the finest of Johann II’s extended waltz constructions, Tales from the Vienna Woods is a tribute to the kind of countryside where, as the German dance or the Ländler, Vienna’s favourite dance form originated. Indeed, the impressionistic pastoral introduction culminates in a Ländler played in authentic style on the zither. In the main section of the piece there are no fewer than five effortlessly imaginative and artfully varied ballroom waltzes, the second of them an up-to-date, up-tempo version of the Ländler from the introduction. Just before the end, after the other tunes have been recalled in the coda, the Ländler makes one last, nostalgic appearance on the zither and in its o

Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald (Tales from the Vienna Woods): Waltz, Op.325

The best thing that ever came out of the Vienna woods, the composer seems to be telling us, is the Viennese waltz. Certainly, the Ländler, the peasant ancestor of the most sophisticated of 19th-century dance forms, originated in the countryside round Vienna - the rustic charms of which are poetically evoked, alongside the usual waltz-time fanfares, in the extended introduction to these Tales from the Vienna Woods. And it is from this pastoral background that, after a picturesque flute cadenza, one of the main themes first emerges, not as a waltz at this stage but as a simple Ländler played on a zither (or, failing that, on muted strings). It is introduced in its waltz form - on string and woodwind this time - in the second of the four central sections of the work, each one of which has its own main and subsidiary themes and sometimes a countertheme in the accompaniment as well. Although it is not recalled along with the other main themes in a coda long enough to match the scale of the introduction, it is heard for the last time, as a Ländler again on zither (or violins), in a brief but show-stopping episode of nostalgia just before the end.