With the establishment of Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens in 1843, the Danish composer and conductor Hans Christian Lumbye (1810–1874) swiftly rose to fame as the city’s internationally acclaimed king of waltzes and galops, leading his orchestra from the violin. For this recording, Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Concerto Copenhagen – Scandinavia’s leading period instruments ensemble – studied Lumbye's original scores and used instruments from the era to recreate an authentic sound. This collection showcases Lumbye’s enchanting music, along with popular pieces by his idols, Joseph Lanner and Johann Strauss I.

H.C. Lumbye and his orchestra were the primary attraction of the amusement park Tivoli in the 1840s. On this album, Concerto Copenhagen recreates the festive music as it would have sounded.

The new dance music had spread like a wildfire through Europe in the 1830s from Austria, first and foremost the Viennese waltz, but also the more direct polka rhythms and the lightning-fast galops.

With Johann Strauss and Joseph Lanner as his biggest sources of inspiration, H.C. Lumbye gathered an orchestra of 22 musicians to create a Danish counterpart which primarily played his own music.

In record time, Lumbye became the great pop star of Danish musical life, especially for his Champagne Galop with the popping champagne corks which today is still one of the most frequently offered encores.

Lumbye quickly gained a reputation abroad, especially after a succesful tour to Paris, Vienna and Berlin, earning the nickname “The Strauss of the North”.

For this album, Concerto Copnehagen has worked with specialists from all over Europe on old sheet music and picking instruments similar to the ones used in Copenhagen in the 1840s, to recreate a sound which no-one has heard for more than 150 years.