My transcription of the working manuscript score in the Wien Bibliothek. The composer’s mood must have improved by the time he performed and published the piece as the title became “Des Verfassers beste Laune”.

Some (!) editing was required. I put the pages in the right order, sorted out the transposition mistakes and the music on the wrong staves. I also did the Suduko like puzzles he left where he doesn’t say what pitch the trumpets are playing in. (If that’s a written C in that chord, that’s a written E in that chord and that’s a written G in that chord then it must be a trumpet in B – H in German).

He does make a mess of his trumpet transpositions. There are many different pitches of trumpets and he writes music for one of them on the line for another. He doesn’t make life easier for himself by writing mostly in E or B major. I have never seen an E Clarinet and why four bars of Posthorn?

There are small differences between this version and that on the Marco Polo edition, mostly down to Strauss but there are places where Strauss’s intentions aren’t clear.

Märzendorfer is the conductor the most sympathetic to Strauss on the Marco Polo recordings in my opinion (because he plays the waltzes at about the same speed that I do!) but I just think those recordings are all a bit flat. I don’t think they make enough of the dynamic contrasts and the accompaniment is a bit mechanical. That’s a bit rich from someone using a synthetic orchestra but I never play the three beats in the bar in the accompaniment all the same length. The balance between wind and strings is a bit odd too, in general, although given the size and shape of Strauss’s orchestra that might actually be correct.