My orchestration of the Mechetti 1840 piano score of this potpourri by Joseph Lanner. There are multiple versions of this piece. It is likely that the piece remained in Lanner’s repertoire for a long period and was changed to keep it up to date. Dörner, in his “Joseph Lanner Chronologisch-Thematisches Werkverzeichnis”, has a first performance date of 1830 but a number of the quotations in it are from pieces written much later than that. The orchestration must have changed too. Dorner’s list of instruments conflicts with the examples from the score he quotes and also from the notes in the piano score I used. Those quotations significantly differ from the score I used. Lanner has greatly extended the “home” section at the end.

Regardless, this is a tour by carriage of the various dance establishments in Vienna in the 1830’s. I am assuming most of the dance sections are by composers resident in those places. Unfortunately, Lanner does not name names, only the names of the dance halls, so identifying all of the quotations is beyond me. However, Johann Strauss I is in the Sperl (Die Nachtwandler, Op. 88) and Lanner is in the Apollo Saal (Olymps-Walzer, Op. 67). Lanner is moonlighting as he also is in the Redoute (Bankett-Polonaise, Op.135). It is possible Strauss is too as in the section marked Säle zum Steg there is a tune he used in the introduction to his Frohsinn im Gebirge, Op. 26. He may be quoting a folk tune.

Some of the quotations are very fleeting. There is a couple of bars of Rossini’s Guillaume Tell overture and of Weber’s Oberon overture. I think there’s a bit of one of his Clarinet Concerti too and possibly even “Home Sweet Home”. I am sure there are more I have missed especially in the “home” section. They sound like quotations from tunes everyone knows. Everyone that lived in 1830’’s Vienna that is.