Although Fucík is best known in North America for his march Entry of the Gladiators, played much too fast in American circuses, his signature piece in Europe is his Florentine March, written during the composer's long stint as leader of the Royal and Imperial Army's military band. It's a happy, spirited piece in the vein of Johann Strauss' Radetzky March and a standard selection on concerts of light band and orchestral music. A perky trumpet fanfare is answered by flutes and drums as the march begins. The strings (this is usually heard in its orchestral incarnation) develop the fanfare into a quickstep tune worthy of the Strauss family. The brass take over with a stern, striving second subject, after which the woodwinds get their chance at the first theme, now adorned with sparkling glockenspiel. The second main section is a soaring hymn of the military rather than religious type (confident rather than pious, with a restless undercurrent). This is paired with a whimsical woodwind march, almost a children's mockery of the opening tune, but the hymn restores the composition's dignity in a grand restatement by the full ensemble.

© James Reel, All Music Guide