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Straussiana was Korngold’s last completed work. Since the Theme and Variations was its companion piece perhaps that was his penultimate work. Both pieces owe their existence to a commission from the American School Orchestras Association in 1953 and Korngold gave them two pieces – I wonder if he thought the Theme and Variations wasn’t long enough? That piece must have come first because he allotted it the catalogue number Op 42 but, according to the notes, he declined to give Straussiana an opus number, believing superstitiously that he wouldn’t live to compose anything beyond the opus number 42. Though it was originally conceived for school orchestra, Korngold eventually created a brilliant orchestration for symphony orchestra, bringing the distant fin de siècle flair of his native city of Vienna to the ever-booming metropolis of Los Angeles.

Straussiana is based on three pieces by Johann Strauss II, whose music Korngold greatly admired. To Strauss’s original orchestration he added percussion, harp and piano. The results are entertaining. First, we hear Korngold’s take on a Polka - the other Pizzicato Polka, in a way. Then there’s a Mazurka (1:33), followed by a Waltz (3:49), which is full of verve. Straussiana is a pretty slight work but Korngold approached his task with affection and great skill.