My transcription of the autograph manuscript from the Wien Bibliothek im Rathaus of this late waltz by Joseph Lanner; a waltz I had previously orchestrated. It’s a great waltz, without misusing the term at all.

Despite being the last orchestration of a mature Lanner waltz I did it has precipitated one of my periodic periods of self-recrimination. Although my version sounds like Lanner (mostly) and was very well received, it is well wide of the mark in some places. I feel a cull coming on. Some of my earlier efforts, which survived my previous cull five years ago, are sounding a bit false to me now.

So what’s wrong with my version?

Differences that are definitely forgivable are down to working from the piano score. There are differences in phrasing, dynamics and even notes between it and the autograph. Some tunes are played at the wrong octave (to make them playable on the piano) which is misleading when deciding how to orchestrate them. Also, the accompaniment has to be clear of the tune, for obvious reasons, so my Violin II and Viola parts tend to be lower than Lanner’s originals. The piano score tends to be simpler than the orchestral score because of the limited number of pianist’s fingers available. This is particularly true in the coda of this piece where there are lots of contrapuntal and other accompanying features which aren’t in the piano score and therefore are not in mine.

Differences that I think are forgivable are where I have spotted that there is likely to be something missing from the piano score and have guessed, based on other scores, the kind of thing that might be. I have guessed wrongly but not very wrongly. I sometimes get the horn/trumpet doubling wrong, using four trumpets where Lanner uses two horns and two trumpets and vice versa. Lanner is not consistent enough for me to get that right all of the time

Unforgivable differences –

I use too much percussion. I always do. There are long stretches of this piece where Lanner uses no percussion at all, even when the orchestra is playing fortissimo. I also seem to have reintroduced some anachronistic side drum techniques that I thought I had stopped doing ages ago.

I use too much oboe, or rather Lanner maltreats the oboe player. He gets boring parts with long silences, even when everyone else is playing.

I don’t give the violas double stopping. Lanner does. This is down to too many years playing in amateur orchestras with too few violas of too poor quality.

I have not studied Lanner’s preferred double stops sufficiently. They’re different from mine. There’s probably a pattern to them

Waltz 4. Misread it completely! My nice trumpet bits (stolen from Schönbrunner) are over the top.

However –

Just occasionally I prefer my version. For example, at the very start I think his tune gets lost in the blast from the rest of the orchestra, because it’s just on cellos, basses and bassoon. I put the tune on unison strings and it carried better. Maybe just this orchestra or he shushed the rest of the band in rehearsal. I like my nice trumpet bits too.