Lumbye’s music is infectiously good-humoured, as this delightful collection well illustrates. He wrote in all the major dance forms that were popular during his lifetime: these included, as well as the waltz, the lively polka and the more stately polka mazurka. The galop was one of the most vigorous dance forms of the mid-nineteenth century, as can be heard here. Although the Strauss family gained international fame and fortune by writing similar music, Lumbye’s is distinct in its lyrical, almost pristine sound, and is equally good.