Schatz

Johann Strauss II

Schatz (Treasure) Waltz, Op.418

Although Johann II devoted most of his creative energies in the last thirty years of his life to writing operettas, he no means put a stop to his production of dances for the ballroom or concert hall. Every Viennese operetta had to be furnished with a generous allocation of songs and other numbers in waltz time and it was a comparatively simple matter to issue these pieces in instrumental arrangements for use outside the theatre. One of the most successful of its kind in its day was the Schatz Waltz, which is actually a medley of the best waltz tunes from Der Zigeunerbaron. Furnished with an impressive introduction in Hungarian-Gypsy idiom and four tuneful waltzes - featuring a particularly splendid surge of melody in the second of them - it is clearly due to reclaim its status as a popular favourite.