Tchaikovsky’s elegant Nutcracker Suite leads on from Brahms’ serious Hungarian Dance No.5, before Strauss II introduces us to the boundless exuberance of the Polish March in his Trisch-Trasch Polka. In the concert’s penultimate work Tchaikovsky transports the evening to the magical halls of snowy Tsarist Russia with a regal waltz from his ballet Sleeping Beauty. The evening reaches its climax with the famous Blue Danube Waltz, not only proving the crowning jewel of a fabulous night’s worth of music, but the coronation of Johann Strauss II as the master of the Viennese waltz.