DESCRIPTION:
In autumn 1864 Johann Strauss 'harvested' a rich crop of decorations as reward for various compositions which he had dedicated to a number of crowned heads across Europe. His medals included the 'Persischen Sonnenorden' (Persian Order of the Sun), awarded by his Imperial Majesty the Shah of Persia, the able and cultured Näser od-Dïn (1831-1896), who acceded to the throne in 1848 and remained a fervent devotee of poetry and music until his assassination at Teheran in 1896. The honour was bestowed upon Strauss in return for the dedication of the Marche persanne -- under which fashionable French title the work was originally published, though the German form of the name, Persischer Marsch, was swift to find more widespread acceptance. The composer conducted the first Viennese performance of the march on 4 December 1864 at a festival concert in the Volksgarten, belatedly celebrating the 20th anniversary of his public debut as composer and conductor at Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing in October 1844.

The Persischer Marsch was actually composed for Johann's 1864 concert season at Pavlovsk, his ninth consecutive 'Russian summer'. At first entitled Persischer Armee-Marsch (Persian Army March), the new work was unveiled before the public at the Vauxhall Pavilion in Pavlovsk Park on 11 July (= 29 June, Russian calendar) and proved the most popular of his compositions in Russia that year, being played on no less than 65 occasions. The Persischer Marsch was in fact to prove a lifelong favourite with its composer, who attached great value to the fact that the Trio section of the work quotes a theme from the Persian national anthem, Johann recognised that his 'characteristic' march was pure programme music; years later, in conversation with Ignatz Schnitzer, librettist of Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron, 1885), he admitted: "I once w rote a Persian march, but I cannot write like that if I need a march for the street". Since the programmes of Johann's 1864 season included a harp solo by Parish Alvars entitled Persischer Marsch, it may have been the success of this latter work which not only gave Strauss the impetus to compose his own Persian March but also furnished him with the original Persian air.

Amusingly, when Näser od-Dïn visited Vienna for the World Exhibition in 1873, a military band, unable to acquire the music for the authentic Persian anthem, instead played Strauss's Persischer Marsch as a hymn for the Shah!