At the age of 20, Johann Strauss II had been pronounced by critics and public alike as a triumphantly rising star. Due to his father's entrenched popularity, however, and to the fact that his father already had contracts at many prestigious Viennese establishments, the younger Strauss was unable to procure any engagements at larger venues or at popular public events for the first year or so following his debut, particularly since his father so publicly disapproved of his son's choice of profession. Few establishments dared to risk being boycotted by the immensely popular Strauss Senior; indeed, after Johann II's debut at Dommayer's Casino in 1844, his father never again performed there, despite having done so regularly until then.

It was exciting to the young composer and conductor, therefore, to receive an engagement to perform at the 1845 carnival in the Tivoli amusement park in the Viennese suburb of Meidling. Here, at the park's scenic location on the Grüne Berg, with a magnificent view of the city in the distance and accompanied by the occasional racket of the park's primitive roller coaster, the young Strauss premiered his Berglieder waltz.

This piece truly demonstrates Johann II's extraordinary talent for orchestration. As its title suggests, the waltz has a rustic, folk-melody character, and is written in the manner of the Austrian Ländler. Its rather lengthy introduction opens with a horn solo that immediately brings about the piece's Alpine mood; echoed first in the woodwinds and then in the strings, the haunting tune leads gently into the first stately, Ländleresque melody. This alternates between horn and orchestra and eventually slides seamlessly into the next orchestral "mountain song," of which the approximately nine-minute work boasts five. The first "song" is eventually revisited, both in the orchestra and in the horn, and fades elegantly back into the woodwinds before the final flourish.

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