‘The Blue Danube’? For the locally patriotic Hamburg audience, it is at best only the second most beautiful place in the world, and therefore, on this occasion, only an overture to the world premiere of 'An der schönen grauen Elbe'. To create the piece, Philharmoniker percussionist Fabian Otten had cheerfully drawn on Strauss’s melodies, perhaps listened carefully to one John Williams soundtrack for ideas on instrumentation, and seasoned the whole thing with a sharp dash of Stravinsky – and, in keeping with the most classic Hamburg song repertoire, he also had the ‘Jung mit’n Tüdelband’ melody run harmoniously, albeit in a distorted form, throughout the piece – after all, why not treat yourself? The waltz-like elements were decidedly off-kilter here; the Elbe water set to music foamed much more roughly and coarsely than that of the stately, undulating Danube. Great fun, in any case.