The Radetzky March is undoubtedly Johann Strauss, Sr.’s most famous work. Its performance has become obligatory at the New Year’s concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic — it’s that piece that involves audience participation in the form of a “clap along.”

The premiere of this familiar music took place on today’s date in 1848 with a distinct political subtext — back then, not everyone back then was clapping along.

Field Marshall Radetzky was the commander of the Austrian forces that rather brutally put down “insurgent democrats” in Italy during the liberal revolutions of 1848, and, as such, became a counter-revolutionary hero in Europe. The premiere of Radetzky March occurred at a concert attended chiefly by monarchists and the Austrian military, and the tune quickly became the unofficial anthem of the Austrian military and ultra-conservatives — the “far right” of that time.

Curiously enough, Johann Strauss, Jr. held diametrically opposite, and considerably liberal, political sympathies from his father.

By the end of the 19th century, however, the bloody political troubles of 1848 were diplomatically swept under the collective Austrian carpet, and Johann Strauss, Jr.’s Blue Danube Waltz became the unofficial anthem for all Austrians, right, left and center.

Johann Strauss, Sr. (1804-1849): Radetzky March; Vienna Philharmonic; Willi Boskovsky, conductor; London/Decca 460250

Today we celebrate the birthday of American composer David Schiff, who was born in New York City on today’s date in 1945.

Schiff’s best-known work, the 1979 opera Gimpel the Fool, is based on a story by the beloved Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer that tells the tale of a Jewish baker in Eastern Europe who takes everything at face value and so is lied to and cheated by everyone he meets. Rather than take revenge, Gimpel becomes a wandering holy man, convinced that God will not lie or cheat him.

Schiff’s opera premiered in New York City in 1979, and shortly thereafter he arranged its themes into an instrumental divertimento, the first of many works written for clarinetist David Shifrin and Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. Writing for those musicians, says Schiff, his given him what he calls, “a wonderful sense of how Haydn must have felt as court composer at Esterházy.”

The divertimento from Gimpel the Fool draws on Jewish liturgical modes and Klezmer music, and its fourth movement references “Who Knows One?” — a traditional song in Passover. Like the story of Gimpel, the song is meant to be humorous, while still imparting an important lesson.

David Schiff (b. 1945): ‘Divertimento’ from ‘Gimpel the Fool’; David Shifrin, clarinet; Theodore Arm, violin; Warren Lash, cello; David Oei, piano; Delos DE-3058

On today’s date in 1981, at a house concert in St. Paul, Minnesota, Courtship Songs, a chamber work by the American composer Stephen Paulus received its first performance. It was commissioned to celebrate the 15th wedding anniversary of Jack and Linda Hoeschler and scored for the instruments the couple and their two children played: flute, oboe, cello and piano. The commissioning bug caught on, and anniversary commissions became a family tradition.

Eventually the Hoeschlers and some of their friends started up a Commissioning Club. Modeled along the lines of an investment club, the purpose was to commission American composers including Paulus, Paul Schoenfield, Steve Heitzeg and Augusta Read Thomas, for premieres by ensembles like New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Washington D.C.’s 20th Century Consort, as well as the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

In 1996, one Commissioning Club premiere reached an audience of millions when Paulus’s setting of Pilgrim Jesus, by English poet Kevin Crossley-Holland, was performed at King’s College, Cambridge as part of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, broadcast live on both the BBC’s World Service and public radio stations across America.

Not a bad return on their investment!

Stephen Paulus (1949-2014): Courtship Songs; Jane Garvin, flute; Merilee Klemp, oboe; Mina Fisher, cello; Jill Dawe, piano; Innova 539