Make sure you have your tickets and please mind the gap! Austria’s own Otto M. Schwarz—film-composer-turned-wind-band-maestro—packs an entire west-bound rail adventure into the brisk Imperial Overture, which is the next piece we are excited to be performing in our next concert. Commissioned in 2014 by the ÖBB Railway Band to salute the historical Imperial Royal State Railways, the score begins in Vienna’s leafy outskirts, threads through Lower- and Upper-Austrian vistas, pauses at the depot in Wels, and steams into Mozart’s Salzburg with brass banners flying. The Imperial Royal State Railways (Kaiserlich-königliche Staatsbahnen) pioneered long-distance travel across the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 1850s, a legacy today embodied by ÖBB. When the Kelvin Grove Wind Orchestra slams the final chord, you’ll swear you’ve just stepped onto Mozartplatz, ticket in hand and steam still curling above your head. All aboard! Click the yellow button and follow along with the listening guide below for a taste of what you will hear from the orchestra.
Close your eyes at the opening fanfare and picture Vienna’s historic Westbahnhof gleaming in morning sun. The clarinet whistle slides upward, the snare snaps, and suddenly you’re rolling through the Vienna Woods, tree trunks flicking past like rhythm slashes. Glockenspiel chimes announce Wels, a brief platform pause; listen for the horn choir’s mellow halo, your sonic postcard of distant alpine meadows. The music hushes, as though the train plunges into a tunnel—then, with a cymbal hiss, daylight bursts and Salzburg’s skyline appears, trumpets blazing, cymbals clanging like station porters’ hand bells. |
