This is a very famous galopp and has been recorded many times. It was written and performed in 1829 just after the premiere of Rossini’s opera in Paris, but before the first Viennese performance in 1830. The opera was a great success and Strauss has “borrowed” the tunes, presumably without access to a score or actually hearing the piece. Accordingly, some of the quotations are not quite right.

The Haslinger first edition piano score does not have the opening fanfare, but judging by the Märzendorfer and Muti recordings, the misquoted version here must be in the original.

While I was tidying up some old files I found an orchestration I had done of this ages ago. It was probably the first orchestration I did. It was …. terrible. In a spare hour or so I had another go, with some reference to the orchestra Strauss had at the time. If an hour or so doesn’t sound very long, I suspect Rossini and Strauss didn’t spend much longer on it.