Constanze Geiger (1835-1890) 
Ferdinandus Waltz, Op. 10 (arr. Wolfgang Dörner) 
Duration: ca. 6 minutes 

What to listen for: 
The 12-year-old girl who composed this work reveals a confident sense of the music’s direction and feel for playful themes and tempos. 

Constanze Therese Adelaide Geiger appears as a footnote in music history, and it took 134 years after her death before most modern ears heard a note of anything she wrote. On the last day of 2024, she made a bit of history as the first woman ever to be performed at the Vienna Philharmonic’s annual New Year’s Eve celebration. The TFO pays homage to Geiger on its latest Masterworks program by performing that same work, the Ferdinandus Waltz. 

A child prodigy, Geiger began presenting her own compositions on the piano when she was 8, gaining attention from the press in Vienna, where the waltz was all the craze throughout the mid and late 19th century. She wrote Ferdinandus in 1848 when she was 12, in honor of Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria. It may have sounded sparse in the original piano version, compared to the rich, modern orchestral arrangement from 2024 by Wolfgang Dörner that you are about to hear. 

The music moves forward with a confident sense of direction, the lilting dance themes changing speed before pausing for contrast, and robust march-like passages that may well have impressed Johann Strauss Sr., who conducted the premiere of his own orchestral version in 1848. In a review after that concert, the Viennese Spectator reported that, “All present were astonished by the soulful softness, delicacy of the motifs and by the originality of the youthful composer’s musical arrangement.” 

Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000) 
Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra  
Duration: ca. 31 minutes 

What to listen for: 
Gulda ignores the boundaries of the traditional cello concerto by overlapping jazz, blues, rock and classical forms into an improvised sonic menagerie. 

Friedrich Gulda wasn’t your stereotypical performer or composer. A product of the Vienna Music Academy, he studied under a strict regimen and later enjoyed the rewards of global recognition as a pianist, known for his clean, unfettered readings of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. But by the early 1960s he began to tire of classical structures, academic authority and the pace of touring, so he immersed himself in the freer, more improvisatory world of jazz. 

He formed a combo, appeared at Newport Jazz Festival and turned conventional performances into spontaneous jam sessions. In 1982 he made a spirited recording of Mozart’s Double Concerto alongside the jazz icon Chick Corea. But he left his footprint on the classics, and a traversal of his recorded work can be found on an 84-disc set on the Deutsche Grammophon label. 

If diversity describes Gulda’s performance style, it also applies to his composing, including the unorthodox Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra, written in 1980 for the virtuoso Heinrich Schiff. It mixes sonata-based structures with jazz, rock and Austrian folk. The soloist is the only string player on stage, backed by a wind band, rhythm section, electric guitar and drum kit that sound more like the band Chicago than a classical unit.  

The piece alternates among what Gulda calls “jazz, a minuet, rock, a smidgen of polka, a march, and a cadenza where the cellist must improvise.” It opens with an aggressive, syncopated bluesy Overture, the soloist tearing away at the strings — without vibrato — and plenty of swaggering support from the ensemble. The following sections include an Alpine Idylle out of Mozart’s time; a virtuosic six-minute free-style Cadenza for the soloist; a Menuett dance lifted from the Renaissance; and the Finale alla Marcia, a Sousa-like march full of rapid-fire runs by the cellist. 

“It has this Jimi Hendrix-like cadenza, so it’s a really bizarre, fun piece,” said TFO Music Director Michael Francis. “But it also taps into the idea of what is a modern concerto?” 

Johann Strauss Jr. (1825-1899) 
The Blue Danube, Op. 314 
Duration: ca. 9 minutes 

What to listen for: 
The composer evokes the shimmering waters of the Danube River before introducing not one but five waltz themes. 

The Strauss family can hold its own against most any musical lineage, second only to the Bach dynasty. The two most prominent — Johann Strauss, Sr., and his son, Johann Jr. — gave the world the waltz on a silver platter and in great numbers. Father Strauss perfected this triple-meter dance for the Viennese ballroom, while the younger Strauss crowned it for the concert hall. Both men were prolific, publishing about 700 works, including more than 300 waltzes. 

When Strauss Jr. died just before the turn of the century, a local newspaper questioned whether a composer who cranked out waltzes like widgets deserved to be ranked with such great Vienna residents as Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. But today we know that isn’t the point. His best work, such as The Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Woods and Die Fledermaus, are crafted like fine jewelry. Brahms and Wagner praised his waltzes as musical miniatures of the highest quality. 

Composed in 1866, Blue Danube ranks as one of the most-performed pieces of music in the repertoire, appearing on both pops and classical programs. Composed to cheer up the Viennese public after the Prussian defeat of Austria at the Battle of Königgrätz, the music was originally written for chorus and later adapted for orchestra for the 1867 Paris World’s Fair. It opens with an airy, restless intro in the key of A that mimics the rippling waters of the Danube River. Soon, the first of five interconnected waltz melodies appears in the horns, and the set alternates between graceful, melancholic and lyrical before joining hands in a grand and energetic coda. 

Richard Strauss (1864-1949) 
Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59 (arr: Artur Rodziński) 
Duration: ca. 22 minutes 

Had Richard Strauss written an autobiography, he might have called it My Brilliant Career. He was, after all, an enormous talent (with an ego to match) whose sensuous and grandiloquent storytelling symphonies and operatic shockers commanded the stages of Europe for three decades. He continued the legacy of Franz Liszt by taking the tone poem to new heights and made quite a racket along the way. You don’t need to be inside Morsani Hall or Mahaffey Theater to enjoy Strauss; his music can be heard a mile away. 

After the success of Don Juan in 1889, he was crowned the heir to Wagner and from then an unstoppable force, giving us Death and Transfiguration, A Hero’s Life, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Salome, Symphonia Domestica, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Elektra and Don Quixote. By the 1920s, Strauss was not only the most famous composer alive, but the wealthiest. 

In keeping with the Austrian theme of this Masterworks program, TFO serves Strauss in the form of a suite: sections from the comic opera of 1910, Der Rosenkavalier — or the Knight of the Rose. Set in 18th-century Vienna, the story follows the exploits of the aristocrat Marschallin, her young lover Octavian, the boorish baron Ochs and the innocent young bride Sophie. But listeners don’t need to know the complex plot; its sparkling romantic style and delightful tunes found their way into a concert version arranged in 1944 by the conductor Artur Rodziński. The five sections include: 

1. Prelude (Act I) – The music depicts the bedtime exploits of Marschallin and Octavian.
2. Presentation of the Silver Rose (Act II) – Octavian presents a flower to 16-year-old Sophie.
3. Baron Ochs’ Waltz (Act II) – The arrogant baron boasts of his sexual prowess.
4. “Ist ein Traum” (Act III) – A dream sequence between Octavian and Sophie.
5. Waltz (reprise) – A dance to celebrate both love and the charm of Vienna’s golden age. 

The score is a tour de force of virtuosic writing, from the opening Alpine horn calls to the sweeping waltzes that drive the action forward to the stylized harmonies that suggest the passion of the two lovers. Strauss blends the lushness of late-Romanticism with the elegance of Mozart, condensing the best tunes from a four-hour opera into a miniature of ravishing beauty. 

Kurt Loft is a journalist and music critic who has written for the Tampa Tribune and other publications and arts groups for 45 years. A member of the Music Critics Association of North America, he lives in St. Petersburg.