One of Strauss’s waltzes, and possibly his best loved of all, is
Loreley-Rheinklänge (‘Sounds of the Lorelei on the Rhine’). It includes a distinctive four-note phrase and echo for clarinet and horn in the introduction that preview further treatment in the main waltz. The composition was greeted with huge applause when first performed at a summer festivity in August 1843, attended by over 3400 people. It was a charity event in aid of Vienna’s St Joseph’s Children’s Hospital, held in lovely weather at another of Vienna’s summer entertainment spots – the Wasser- Glacis. This was situated in the former moat around the old Vienna city walls that survived until the late 1850s.
from notes by Andrew Lamb © 2000
