Welcome to the Ether Game weekly podcast! We've been exploring different Musical Metropolises this month, and for our third stop, we travel to the so-called "City of Music": Vienna. You'll have a ball with this week's podcast selection. It's sure to get you up and waltzing! Can you name this Viennese tune? (The answer is below) Remember to keep your ears out for a portion of Tuesday night's Teaser selection. And don't forget to tune into the full show on Tuesday, May 15th at 8:00pm for a chance to win a prize!

Johann Strauss II (1825–1899), Vienna Blood, Op. 354

Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra; Ondrej Lenárd, conductor. Strauss: The King Of Three-Quarter Time (Sony Classical)

Johann Strauss Jr, the "Waltz King," was the dominant force of Viennese music from the 1840s until his death in 1899. For decades, he had the "City of Music" dancing up a storm in three-quarter time. There was however one place that Strauss's music was not accepted, and that was at the Vienna Philharmonic, the city's pre-eminent concert orchestra. The Vienna Philharmonic and its conductor Hans Richter preferred the more "serious" music of Brahms and Bruckner, not the light popular music of the Strauss family. Strauss made his debut with the Philharmonic in 1873 with this piece Vienna Blood, conducting the orchestra. But he only worked with them five more times over the next 25 years. It wasn't until the 1940s that the Vienna Philharmonic fully embraced its native music, beginning its annual New Year's Eve concert of waltzes by Johann and the rest of the Strauss family.