Its author was Johann Andreas Wachmann, a musician who settled in Bucharest in the early 1830s. Soon after his arrival there he probably started to transcribe tunes from the traditional, peasant folk music (many from Oltenia, the western region of Wallachia), urban folklore, romances, patriotic and other songs. Wachmann converted the most beautiful melodies into charming piano miniatures close to the style of early salon music.
Performed in aristocratic and middle-class milieu, the compositions were dedicated to distinguished female aristocrats. The first notebook (“Roumania”, 1846) was addressed to Maria Bibescu, Princess-consort of Wallachia between 1845 and 1848. She was the dedicatee of Johann Strauss II’s Marien-Quadrille op. 51, edited by the same Viennese publisher in 1848. This piece, along with the Annika-Quadrille op. 53, comprises numerous melodies from Wachmann’s notebooks. Hence Strauss’ Quadrilles ought to be included as well and round off the program with reminiscences of contemporary Viennese dance music.
As an intermediary between folk and art music, Wachmann’s collection shall be recorded in its full length for the first time since its publication by H.F. Müller in Vienna. A Vienna University of Music graduate, the sensitive, enchanting Transylvania-born pianist Adriana Paler has been engaged to perform. The project “Horaquadrille. Sounds of Wallachia” won a subsidy at the 47th Call of the Austrian Music Fund in September 2021.