Philipp Fahrbach I, Lackenhofer Klänge, Walzer, Op. 350, Arr. CPE Strauss

From www.cpestrauss.com
www.cpestrauss...
My orchestration from the Kramer piano score of this waltz by Philipp Fahrbach I. It doesn’t appear in any list of his works that I have seen and the opus number is beyond the last one in any of those lists. I’m sure it’s the right Fahrbach and it looks like a late waltz of his to me.
I always think of Fahrbach as the thinking man’s waltz composer. The harmonic progressions are often unusual and the structure of the themes and the waltz sections unconventional. For example, here waltz 1A is 20 bars long, rather than the more usual 16 or 24 of this period, waltz 4 is all of a piece and there are interesting key changes, one of which I still can’t figure out how it works. Despite that, it just sounds to the casual listener like just another waltz, albeit a good one.
If Josef Strauss was the “Schubert of the ballroom” then perhaps there is a case for Fahrbach being the “Haydn of the ballroom”

[@Sokratekk]

Nice and pleasant waltz. Everything by Fahrbach on your channel is a welcome suprise.

[@cpestrauss8740]

I've stopped being surprised. He's just a very good composer. I'm also very impressed with the way his music adapts to changing fashions. This waltz couldn't really have been written any earlier than about 1870 and is bang up to date. He's also interesting to do because there are always "that'll never work" moments that turn out to work perfectly. I don't know why he's almost entirely forgotten. Maybe because he didn't go far from Vienna. Or perhaps he just wasn't charismatic. Certainly, when looking for piano scores, I rarely find any of his in libraries outside of central Europe, even in places where there are those of Faust, Gung'l, Labitzky etc. who are not in his class. I've never once found a published orchestral score ... and his handwriting is terrible which puts me off transcribing the manuscript scores.

[@DrivermanO]

Lovely waltz, great upload. I have in the back of my mind that I read somewhere that Radetsky March was a collaboration between JS 1 and PF 1, but that JS 1 took all the credit, and was never corrected. Whether that has any truth, or just the result of envy or whatever, I don't know, and can't find the source anymore. Probably total rubbish, but you never know!

[@cpestrauss8740]

I doubt that's true. Fahrbach certainly did play in Strauss's orchestra earlier and claimed to have helped in the orchestration of some of Strauss's pieces. That's likely to be true and, similarly, Strauss's handwriting is to be found on scores by Lanner from the period when he played in Lanner's orchestra. By 1848 Fahrbach was an established leader of his own orchestra and is not likely to have needed the extra work, or had the time for it for that matter. ou never know though.