1814: A Viennese Whirl

1814, Vienna. As Europe's leaders gather for the Congress of Vienna, the city is gripped by a new dance craze. In the ballrooms of the Austrian capital, couples whirl across the floor in close embrace, alarming moralists and delighting dancers. The waltz has arrived.

Originating in the folk traditions of Central Europe, the waltz quickly becomes one of the defining social and musical phenomena of the nineteenth century. As public dance halls proliferate across Vienna, composers, performers and entrepreneurs seize new opportunities, helping to create a thriving market for music designed as much for entertainment as for artistic ambition.

From Schubert's piano waltzes to Weber's Invitation to the Dance and the great Strauss dynasty, the waltz soon escapes the ballroom altogether. Over the decades that follow, composers continue to reinvent its distinctive rhythms, transforming a popular dance into one of classical music's most enduring and versatile forms.

Gillian Moore is joined by a roster of distinguished historians for this major new BBC Radio 3 series, charting a course through 1000 years of classical music history. Today, her co-presenter is Simon Schama.

Producer: Chris Taylor
Academic Consultant: Professor Laura Tunbridge, University of Oxford
Story Consultant: Kate Leys
Series Editor for BBC Audio: Emma Harding

Key Changes theme tune composed by Joseph Howard and performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Kerem Hasan.

MUSIC DETAILS

Johann Nepomuk Hummel: 12 Waltzes, Nos. 1, 2, 3 & 5
London Mozart Players
Howard Shelley (conductor)

Joseph Lanner: Steyrischetanz
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Robert Stolz (conductor)

Franz Schubert: Waltzes, D145, Op. 18 No. 2
Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)

Franz Schubert: Waltzes, D145, Op. 18 No. 6
Aurélien Pontier (piano)

Carl Maria von Weber: Invitation to the Dance
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Kerem Hasan (conductor)

Johann Strauss II: An der schönen blauen Donau (The Blue Danube)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Herbert von Karajan (conductor)

Sergei Prokofiev: Waltz from War and Peace
Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra
Mark Ermler (conductor)

Leonard Cohen: Take This Waltz
Leonard Cohen (vocals)

To listen to this programme using most smart speakers, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Key Changes."