Lanner: Viennese Dances

Joseph Lanner was the inventor of the formal Viennese waltz, elevating it from a peasant dance to a refined art form enjoyed by high society. While renowned in his day, Lanner seldom left Vienna and failed to acquire the same European fame as his more widely travelled colleague and rival Johann Strauss I, but his music endures for its rich generic variety and lyrical, poetic style. These dances range from boisterous and 'immoral' galopades to the spooky Geistermusik of the Hexentanz, and a late masterpiece Die Schönbrunner, given 21 encores at Lanner's final concert and including melodies quoted by Stravinsky in his ballet Petrushka.