To this day the Loreley-Rhein-Klänge is considered to be the most successful set of waltzes by Johann Strauss the Elder. At the same time the work received a somewhat low-key reception at its first performance on 19 August 1843. Admittedly, one chronicler felt obliged to report that: ‘the repeat performance’ of the new waltzes was ‘vehemently demanded’, yet had implied nothing more than that the new piece had not been a failure. Joseph Lanner’s magnum opus, his set of waltzes Die Schönbrunner, which had been launched only ten months earlier, had roused a lot more enthusiasm. As soon as the first bars of that work were heard rapturous applause broke out and the public called for it to be played three or four more times. The differing reaction to these two masterpieces is probably due to the respective composition of the crowds being present. While Die Schönbrunner were first performed in a Lanner benefit concert in the down-to-earth setting of the Fünfhauser beer hall, the Loreley-Rhein-Klänge waltzes were heard for the first time in a charity concert for a children’s hospital sponsored by the Archduchess Sophie on the classy Wasserglacis (an area of what today is the Stadtpark), where a restrained group of listeners had gathered. However, this new set of waltzes quickly established itself as Strauss’s undisputed showstopper, not surpassed until his Radetzky March half a decade later.
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