My orchestration of this waltz by Joseph Lanner. It was written in the spring of 1839 and dedicated to Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna of Russia, a daughter of Tsar Nicholas I. She was in the news at the time because of her wedding in the July of that year but I can see no obvious connection to Lanner or even Vienna.

It is one of Lanner’s best waltzes but the autograph and contemporary orchestral material does not appear to have survived. There are versions for orchestra but from the choice of instruments and layout of the orchestra I think (without actually seeing them!) that they are unlikely to be entirely the work of Lanner. I have orchestrated the piece based on a typical Lanner orchestra of the period.

There are a couple of very good quartet recordings of this piece but I can’t find one for orchestra which I suppose is not surprising given the lack of performance material. I have a potentially false memory of owning a recording for orchestra of this piece, back in the days when music was black, round and with a hole in the middle. Looking at the piano score I could “hear” the orchestration in places, but as part of the process is to do that anyway perhaps it was just imagination.