The Johann Strauss Edition Johann Strauss II, the most famous and enduringly successful of 19th-century light music composers, was born in Vienna on 25...
The Johann Strauss Edition
Johann Strauss
II, the most famous and enduringly successful of 19th-century light music
composers, was born in Vienna on 25 October 1825. Building upon the firm
musical foundations laid by his father, Johann Strauss I (1804-1849) and Joseph
Lanner (1801-1843), the younger Johann (along with his brothers, Joseph and
Eduard) achieved so high a development of the classical Viennese waltz that it
became as much a feature of the concert hall as of the ballroom. For more than
half a century Johann II captivated not only Vienna but also the whole of
Europe and America with his abundantly tuneful waltzes, polkas, quadrilles and
marches. The thrice-married 'Waltz King' later turned his attention to the
composition of operetta, and completed 16 stage works besides more than 500
orchestral compositions - including the most famous of all waltzes, The Blue
Danube (1867). Johann Strauss II died in Vienna on 3 June 1899.
The Marco Polo
Strauss Edition is a milestone in recording history, presenting, for the first
time ever, the entire orchestral output of the 'Waltz King'. Despite their
supremely high standard of musical invention, the majority of the compositions
have never before been commercially recorded and have been painstakingly
assembled from archives around the world. All performances featured in this
series are complete and, wherever possible, the works are played in their
original instrumentation as conceived by the master orchestrator himself,
Johann Strauss II.
Grossfürsten-Marsch
(Grand Dukes March) op. 107
The title page of
the first piano edition of the Grossfürsten-Marsch, issued by Carl
Haslinger's publishing house on 26 May 1852, bears the inscription:
"Composed by Johann Strauss, Kapellmeister, in celebration of the noble
presence in Vienna of their Royal Highnesses the Grand Dukes Nikolai and
Michail of Russia".
The grand dukes,
youngest sons of the reigning Tsar Nicholas I (1796-1855), had accompanied
their father to Vienna in March 1852 where, as the personal guests of the young
Austrian Emperor Franz Josef (1830-1916), they remained until mid-May. On 21
March, shortly after their arrival in the Imperial city, Nikolai (1831-1891)
and Michail (1832-1909) were guests of honour at a soiree hosted by Prince Paul
Anton Esterhazy at his palace in Vienna (today situated in the 1st district at
Wallnerstrasse 4), and Johann Strauss and his orchestra were engaged to
entertain during the evening. This was the 26-year-old conductor/composer's
first opportunity to meet the two Russian grand dukes, and it was on this
occasion that he first played their dedication march. (The musically-gifted
Michail would later occasionally appear during Strauss's Pavlovsk summer
concert seasons as cellist in the orchestra. Inexplicably, however, Johann was
to programme the Grossfürsten-Marsch just once - on 12 June (31 May,
Russian calendar) - during his five-month debut season at Pavlovsk in 1856).
Not until Sunday
2 May 1852 at Unger's Casino in the Viennese suburb of Hernals, did Johann give
a public performance of his Grossfürsten-Marsch. Such was the
"decidedly favourable reception" given to the new work that it had to
be played no less than six times, the reviewer for the Neue Wiener
Musikzeitung (06.05.1852) commenting: "We must admit that this piece
of music belongs to the first of its genre; the melody is fetching, the
instrumentation effective and powerful. We are convinced that this march will
soon soar to the position of favourite piece of all the bands". In his
book, Unsterbliche Tonkunst: Johann Strauss (1940), the music researcher
Dr. Erich Schenk makes the general observation that "one seeks in vain heroic
martialism in the Strauss march". He continues: "These 'stylish' marches,
occasionally set in 6/8 time like op. 93 [Kaiser-Jager-Marsch] and op. 107
[Grossfürsten-Marsch] are more expressions of optimistic cheerfulness than heroic dash". To this list he might also have
added another of these 'cavalry' marches, Johann's Caroussel-Marsch op.
133 (Volume 6) of 1853, whose introductory four bars are identical to those of
the Grossfürsten-Marsch.
Explosions-Polka
op. 43
The name of the
German scientist Chirstian Friedrich Schonbein (1799-1868) is largely forgotten
today, but his discoveries in the disciplines of chemistry and physics were to
have tremendous significance, especially in the field of warfare. Apart from
discovering and naming the gas ozone in 1840, he also invented guncotton
(nitrocellulose), the latter discovery resulting from a chance mishap in his
kitchen while mopping up some spilled nitric and sulphuric acid with his wife's
cotton apron. This led directly to his work on nitrocellulose which he prepared
and applied as a propellant in firearms early in 1846 during experiments at
Mainz. Shortly afterwards, Professor Kraysky, a physicist at the Imperial-Royal
Josefinum in Vienna, also announced that he was conducting experiments into
"exploding cotton wool" (guncotton) and, by means of a cord of the
substance, succeeded in almost simultaneously igniting all the candles in a
chandelier. The Viennese press reported on this work in autumn 1846, and some
took pleasure in describing which products could now be made 'explosive' One
humorous paper even advised mothers against swaddling their infants in cotton
nappies! The word 'explosive' swiftly became fashionable, especially among
Vienna's youth: an actor would be described as being 'explosively' good in his
rôle, while a lady's attractive hat or gown might be said to have an
'explosive' effect. The harmless-looking, fluffy white material soon became
available through apothecaries, and before long pedlars were even hawking it
around the capital's coffee-houses and taverns.
Such was the vogue
for the word that the Theaterzeitung enquired whether there would not soon be a
waltz entitled Explodierende Baumwolle (Exploding Cotton Wool). The
paper provided its own answer when it notified its readers on 9 February 1847:
"Strauss Son has written a new waltz, 'Irenen Tanze', and dedicated it to
the Countess Jenny Zichy. In addition, an 'Exploding Cotton Wool Polka' as
well. Splendid, that!" Der Wanderer (11.02.1847), albeit belatedly,
also reported on the new composition: "Modern progress. Strauss Son will
yet let loose an 'Exploding Cotton Wool Polka' during this carnival. We hope
that it hits the mark". The journalist's wish was amply fulfilled: Johann
had given the first performance of this 'explosive' novelty at his own benefit,
a "Lust-Explosionsfest" (Fun Explosions Festival) held in the
Straussl-Sale of the Josefstadter Theater on 8 February 1847, and thereafter
conducted it to 'explosive' applause at Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing and at
all the other old Viennese establishments where he and his orchestra played.
The work went on sale from H.F. Müller's publishing house in early February
1848 as the Explosions-Polka, and under this title it has retained its
popularity right up to the present day.
Frauenkaferln
Walzer (Ladybirds. Waltz) op. 99
On 20 August 1851 Der
Wanderer carried the following announcement: "On Monday, 25th of this
month, on the occasion of the parish fair in Hernals, Capellmeister Strauss has
his benefit at Unger's Casino and on this day will play for the first time his
latest waltz, 'Frauenkaferln', as a companion piece to his highly popular
'Johanniskaferln' [Glow-Worms Waltz op. 82, Volume 21 of this series]. There is
no doubt that this grand entertainment venue will be full to overflowing on
this day, given Strauss's great popularity. In the same place on the previous
day Strauss will perform a new polka, the 'Voslauer-Polka' [op. 100, Volume
14]".
In the event
Johann did not introduce his new waltz until Wednesday 27 August, poor weather
having forced a postponement of the festivity. Der Wanderer (28.08.1851)
carried a glowing report. "Capellmeister Strauss's benefit ball at Unger's
Casino yesterday was so animated and in every respect turned out so
brilliantly, in a way similar festivals have seldom done. In spite of the cool
weather an extraordinarily numerous public gathered in the large garden and in
the hall, which may once again serve as proof to Herr Strauss how great and
widespread is his popularity. In the hall dancing to Strauss's music went on
until the early morning, and the applause was so tempestuous that the majority
of the compositions performed had to be repeated. His latest, very successful
waltz, 'Die Frauenkaferln' [sic!l, found an enthusiastic reception".
After a brief
Introduction, Frauenkaferln opens with a beguiling waltz theme of remarkable
simplicity; little wonder that, almost three-quarters of a century later, it
suggested itself to Leonide Massine for inclusion in the posthumous Strauss
ballet pastiche, Le beau Danube (1924), where it is heard as
accompaniment to a group of players handing out programmes to passers-by in the
Vienna Prater.
While, as the
musicologist Max Schonherr has stated, the title of Strauss's waltz may have
been suggested by Anton von Klesheim's poem "Das Frauenkaferl", or by
August Silberstein's story of that name, the natural world was a constant
source of inspiration to the Strausses, as for example with the earlier waltz
Johannis-Kaferln (1850). It therefore seems more likely that Johann simply
plucked the title of his waltz from the ubiquitous seven spot ladybird
(Coccinella 7-punctata), the small bright red beetle of the family
Coccinellidae, which is widespread throughout Austria and the rest of Europe,
and an illustration of which adorns the cover of the first piano edition of the
Frauenkaferln waltz.
Le Papillon
Polka-Mazurka (The Butterfly Polka-mazurka) op. 174
Readers of the
Vienna Fremdenblatt newspaper on 14 December 1855 learned of a
"Grand Concert for the Benefit of Johann Strauss" which was to take
place in the Volksgarten on Sunday 16 December. The advertisement further
announced that two new Strauss compositions would receive their first
performances on this occasion, namely Le Papillon, Polka-Mazur
and the Silvester-Polka. The enormous crowd that flocked to this musical
soiree was not disappointed, and the critic for the Wiener Conversationsblatt
(18.12.1855) glowingly reported that both polkas "provoked genuine
enthusiasm on account of their original and piquant motifs; repeated applause
and encores of the above-mentioned pieces were the reward for these exceedingly
excellent and now very welcome dances for the approaching carnival
season". Over the next few days Johann conducted the Strauss Orchestra in
further performances of Le Papillon and the Silvester-Polka: on
19 December they featured on the programme of his penultimate concert for that
year at the 'Grosser Zeisig' dance hall and tavern in the suburb of Neubau, and
the following day they were heard again at his benefit concert in Schwender's
establishment in Rudolfsheim - with the Silvester-Polka retitled the Taglioni-Polka
(Volume 23) in honour of the ballerina, Marie Taglioni, who had just returned
to Berlin after hugely successful performances in Vienna.
The polka-mazurka Le
Papillon, which perhaps does not belong to the 'top-drawer' of Strauss's
compositions, found little favour with the public in Russia when Johann
featured it during his debut concert season in Pavlovsk in 1856. In marked
contrast to its entomological companion piece - the waltz Nachtfalter
(Moths) op. 157 (Volume 5 of this series), which was played a total of 49 times
during the five-month engagement - Le Papillon was dropped from the
programmes after just four performances.
Promenade-Quadrille
(Promenade Quadrille) op. 98
Listeners familiar
with the posthumous Strauss ballet pastiche, Le beau Danube (1924), put
together by Leonide Massine and Roger Desormière, will have no difficulty in
recognising in the ballet's Introduction the first two themes from each of the
first (Pantalon) and third (Poule) figures, or sections, of Johann's Promenade-Quadrille.
The
Promenade-Quadrille
itself was Johann's contribution to a "Grand May Festival Celebrating the
Awakening of Nature, entitled 'Flower Mosaic'", held in the Vienna
Volksgarten on Friday 23 May 1851. The organiser of the event, Johann Baptist
Corti, had been forced by inclement weather to postpone the celebration several
times over the previous fortnight. Even though the weather on the eventual day
of the festival was such that many of the numerous visitors felt the need for
shawls and overcoats, Corti doubtless enjoyed good business: not only was he the organiser of the 'Mai Fest', but
also the proprietor of the coffee-salon in the Volksgarten! In keeping with the
theme of the celebration, Corti had spared no expense in elaborately decking
his premises. As the reporter for the
Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung
(25.05.1851) recorded: "Elegant festoons of flowers, bound together with
colourful cloth, rich floral decorations offered the eye a very beautiful
picture; in addition there came two excellent bands conducted by their
Capellmeisters, Johann Strauss and [Josef] Liehmann, who did everything to
bring the public excellence both in the selection and in the production of the
pieces. For this evening Herr Strauss composed and performed a new quadrille,
the 'Promenade-Quadrille', which on tempestuous demand had to be played da capo
on account of its original, melodious and effective figures".
As a result of
the strenuous demands imposed upon him by the 1851 Vienna Carnival, the
24-year-old Johann Strauss suffered a breakdown on the night of Shrove Tuesday
- the final day of the annual celebrations. So serious was this physical and
mental collapse that some newspapers had carried reports of his death. As
Professor Franz Mailer has written: "Strauss had to take a rest, and even
the ever constant flood of new compositions ran dry". Johann put this
compulsory break to good use, and after detailed negotiations with his late
father's music publisher, Carl Haslinger, agreement was reached whereby the
Haslinger firm took over responsibility for the publication of all the younger
Johann's compositions (commencing with the Idyllen - Walzer op. 95,
Volume 24). When, in May 1851, Strauss again took up his pen to compose, he did
so cautiously, and the Promenade-Quadrille remains his only new
post-carnival work of that spring. This may partially explain an unusual
(though not isolated) apparent labour-saving device in the opening Pantalon
figure, whereby Johann employs a variation on the first melody (1A) to form the
second (1B) instead of creating entirely fresh melodic material. The origins of
these themes, together with those of 1C, 2A, 2B and 6A are all to be found on
the same page in Johann's earliest musical sketchbook, covering the period
August 1843 to the end of 1851, now in the collection of the Houghton Library
of Harvard University, USA.
Kronungslieder
Walzer (Coronation Songs Waltz) op. 184
The Kronungslieder
- Walzer was the first of two compositions - the other being the waltz Souvenir
de Nizza op. 200 - which Johann Strauss dedicated "in deepest respect
to her Majesty Maria Alexandrovna, Empress of Russia". The Empress,
formerly Princess Maximiliane Wilhelmine Marie of Hesse-Darmstadt (1824-80),
the daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse, had assumed her Russian cognomen
upon her marriage in 1841 to Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaievich (1818-81),
eldest son of Tsar Nicholas I. Upon the latter's death on 2 March 1855, during
the Crimean War, his son acceded to the throne as Tsar Alexander II. Maria
Alexandrovna was to bear her husband six sons and two daughters, among them the
future Tsar Alexander III.
Johann Strauss
had commenced his first summer concert season at the Vauxhall Pavilion in
Pavlovsk, near St. Petersburg, on 18 May 1856 (= 6 May, Russian calendar). From
the outset his appearances had attracted the attention of the Russian royal
family; for example, the Grand Duke Konstantin attended three of Johann's
concerts while his wife, the Grand Duchess Alexandra Jossiphovna, an amateur
composer, graced the audience on no less than nineteen occasions. Even Tsar
Alexander II was present at two of Strauss's concerts, although there is no
record of the Tsarina's attendance - at least, not according to the detailed
diary of the viola-player, F.A. Zimmermann. Almost certainly, however, Maria
Alexandrovna would have been much in evidence at the ball which the Tsar hosted
on 8 August (= 27 July) at which Strauss and his orchestra played. Such was the
Tsar's delight with Strauss's performances that, according to a report in the
Wiener Theaterzeitung on 4 September 1856, the Viennese Kapellmeister was
commanded by the Tsar to attend the coronation festivities in Moscow on 7
September ( = 26 August) and to conduct his orchestra at the festivities at
Court and at the ball which the Austrian ambassador extraordinary, Prince Paul
Esterhazy, was to give for the Russian Court. Johann celebrated the coronation
in two festive compositions: the Kronungs-Marsch op. 183 (Volume 12 of
this series) and the waltz Kronungslieder. The latter work, into which Russian
melodies are woven, received its first performance at Pavlovsk on 14 August (=
2 August), at Strauss's second benefit concert, together with the polka
française L'Inconnue op. 182 (Volume 22) and was heard a total of 32 times
during Johann's concerts at the Vauxhall Pavilion. In a letter written to his
Viennese publisher, Carl Haslinger, on 14 September (= 2 September), Strauss
drew attention to his new waltz and polka, "with which two pieces I have
had great success here. Although I had little time, I had even less confidence
about their successful outcome".
Johann returned
to Vienna in mid-December 1856, but it was not until the following year's
carnival that he introduced his home audiences to the Kronungslieder Walzer.
He took the opportunity to launch its Viennese première at his benefit ball
held in the Sofienbad-Saal on 16 February 1857. This novelty evening was
announced as a 'Dance Battle', the ladies present being invited to vote for
their favourite piece of music played by the orchestra. If Strauss had expected
his new waltz to win the day, he would have been disappointed: while
Kronungslieder "met with uncommon applause and had to be repeated three
times" (Fremdenblatt, 18.02.1857), the vote went to his French
polka Demi-Fortune op. 186 (Volume 24). The announcements for the
evening erroneously gave the dedicatee of Kronungslieder as the Tsar of Russia,
a mistake corrected by the Wiener Zeitung on 17 February, announcing the
publication of the waltz that day by the firm of Carl Haslinger. Strauss's copyist,
the viola-player Georg Kraus, had in fact completed the fair copy of the
Kronungslieder score on 11 January, and from this the publisher carried out the
standard process of preparing separate orchestral parts and the usual editions
for piano as well as solo violin with piano accompaniment.
Bonbon-Polka
Française (Bonbon Polka) op. 213
The publication
in 1926 of "Johann Strauss schreibt Briefe" (Johann Strauss writes
Letters) - an edited, often censored, selection of the composer's
correspondence assembled by his widow Adèle in collaboration with the Strauss
biographer Fritz Lange - shed light on many facets of Johann's professional and
private world. Part of the collection is devoted to a little-publicised chapter
in the Waltz King's life: his love affair with Olga Smirnitzkaja, the young and
spirited daughter of aristocratic Russian parents, whom Strauss had met during
the season of concerts he gave at Pavlovsk during summer 1858. Their
relationship, which lasted until spring 1860 when Olga brought it to an end by
announcing her engagement to a rival suitor, is traced in a series of letters
which Johann sent his beloved. According to Fritz Lange, the transcripts of
this correspondence came into Adèle's possession after Johann's death when
Pauline de Swertschkoff, widow of the Russian Court artist Nikolai de
Swertschkoff and the former confidante, friend, companion and chaperone of the
young Olga, brought them to Vienna with her when she came to visit the Waltz
King's grave. (The originals of these letters and the transcripts have since
been lost). The intense and genuine attraction which Johann and Olga felt for
one another was doubtless given additional momentum by the fact that Olga was
not only musically educated but had also tried her hand at composition: her
Romanze, "Erste Liebe" (First Love), featured in the programme of
Johann's concert at Pavlovsk on 6 October 1858 (= 24 September, Russian
calendar), in Strauss's orchestration.
The young
Viennese musician's association with his Russian sweetheart was not, however,
unopposed. In a footnote accompanying Johann's letters, Fritz Lange comments:
"The disapproving attitude of Olga's parents, who minutely supervised
every action of their beautiful daughter, called for great caution on the part
of the lovers". Their clandestine affair was therefore conducted with the
assistance of intermediaries, namely Pauline de Swertschkoff and Herr Leibrock,
the latter being a St. Petersburg-based art-dealer, who acted as Johann's
secretary. Ta these two intimates fell the task of depositing and collecting
the love notes and tokens which Johann and Giga exchanged, and which were
disguised as confectionery - "Bonbons" - in twists of paper and
concealed, for the most part, in a hollow tree in Pavlovsk Park. For Johann and
Olga, therefore, there was a special meaning in the choice of Bonbon for the
title of the polka which Strauss wrote for his Russian audiences and first
performed at Pavlovsk in 1858.
When the composer
presented his Bonbon-Polka in the Volksgarten on 21 November 1858 at his first
public appearance upon returning from Russia, his Viennese audience could have
had no inkling as to the significance of the work's title. Johann shared the
conducting with his brother Josef (who, coincidentally, had composed a Bon-Bon
Polka française op. 55 earlier that same year) and also gave the first
Viennese performances of his Abschied von St. Petersburg Walzer op. 210,
Champagner-Polka Op. 211 (Volume 14 of this series) and Fürst
Bariatinsky-Marsch op. 212 (Volume 16). In its review of the concert the Wiener
Theaterzeitung (24.11.1858) noted that two or three encores of each new
piece were demanded by the audience, and the critic found the Bonbon-Polka
to be "elegantly and piquantly instrumented".
Spiralen Walzer
(Spirals. Waltz) op. 209
Musical history
abounds with examples of one composer appearing to have unconsciously
'borrowed' the melody of another. Then again there are instances where such
borrowing is deliberate and obvious, designed to add effect to a particular piece
of music - witness the numerous quotations from popular student songs to be
found in the compositions of the Strauss family. But there is another group
where the appropriation is equally deliberate, but where such blatant
plagiarism is motivated solely by a desire to re-use a tune that is too good to
ignore. Such was the case with a melody in Johann Strauss's Spiralen Walzer,
the composition he dedicated "to the Gentlemen Engineers" of the
technical authorities and railway managements on the occasion of their ball
held in the Redoutensaal ballroom of the Imperial Hofburg Palace, Vienna, on 31
January 1858.
The success of
the Waltz King's compositions ensured that they were swiftly taken into the
repertoires of military and civilian orchestras and the smaller ensembles. One
conductor whose career alternated between civilian and military life was Carl
Michael Ziehrer (1843-1922), a fierce rival of the Strauss brothers and a
prolific composer of dance music and operettas spanning the 19th- and
20th-centuries. Such was his prowess in Vienna's musical life that in 1908 he
was appointed to the prestigious post of 'k.k. Hofball-Musikdirektor' (Director
of Music for the Imperial-Royal Court Balls), an honorary title created for the
elder Johann Strauss in 1846 and thereafter held exclusively by members of the
Strauss family. Ziehrer was destined to be the last holder of this coveted
honour.
Ziehrer was
clearly no stranger to Johann's Spiralen Walzer, for the work featured
from time to time in his concert programmes. However, the Strauss waltz
abruptly vanishes from Ziehrer's repertoire, never to reappear, around the time
that he was composing perhaps his greatest operetta success, Die
Landstreicher (The Vagabonds), which received its première at the 'Venedig
in Wien' summer theatre in Vienna on 20 June 1899. One does not have to look
far for the reason! Amongst the hit numbers in Die Landstreicher was a waltz
song in the Act 1 Finale, "Sei gepriesen, du lauschige Nacht" (Be
praised, you idyllic night), which had to be encored. Naturally the melody also
found its way into the orchestral waltz In lauschiger Nacht (op. 488)
which Ziehrer assembled from the score of Die Landstreicher and
conducted for the first time on 12 October 1899. A comparison of Ziehrer's
waltz song and the opening melody (Waltz 1A) of Johann's Spiralen Walzer
leaves no possible doubt as to the source of Ziehrer's tune - one which has
retained its popularity to the present day. Strauss himself did not live to
hear the resurrection of his Spiralen theme: he died just seventeen days before
the Landstreicher première.
Johann's choice
of Spiralen as the title of a waltz for the Engineers' Ball was doubly
apposite. Not only was he plundering the everyday vocabulary of the profession,
but the more general description of a 'spiral' as "something which pursues
a winding... course or that displays a twisting form or shape" (Collins
English Dictionary, 1982) suitably describes the motion of the waltzing couples
on the dance floor.
Künstler-Quadrille (Artists Quadrille) op. 201
When, during the 1980s, a London
orchestra of international repute unleashed upon an unsuspecting world a series
of recordings in which the 'classics' were brought up to date by the addition
of a heavy rhythm track, there were raised eyebrows amongst those who
considered serious music a 'sacred cow', fully underserving of such modern
treatment. But these dissenters overlooked historical precedent, for the
practice of fashioning dance music from the score of any stage work which
achieved even modest success was already customary in Mozart's day (1756-91).
Joseph Lanner (1801-43) and the eider Johann Strauss (1804-49) repeatedly
adopted this practice - as did the latter's sons - and in time the quadrille
came to be regarded as the most suitable vehicle for presenting the music of
operas, operettas and ballets in the ballroom.
For his second Künstler-Quadrille
- his first (op. 71) dates from 1849 - Johann drew not only upon operatic music
but also upon other contemporary pieces. The selection process was far from
random; as the Blatter für Musik, Theater und Kunst (26.01.1858) noted, the
quadrille provided "a backward glance at this year's concert season".
The Künstler-Quadrille, "On motifs by the celebrated masters",
was Strauss's dedication for the ball of the Vienna Artists' Association,
'Hesperus', held in the Sofienbad-Saal on2 February 1858. The quadrille
comprises the six figures (or sections) usual in the Viennese version of the
dance, and presents themes from the following works:
Pantalon A/B - Mendelssohn:
Wedding March (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
C - Mozart:
Symphony K. 40 in G minor
Éte A - Weber: "Hüon, mein Gatte" (Oberon)
B/C - Chopin: Trio from Sonata No.35 (Marche funèbre)
Poule A - Paganini: La Campanella from Violin Concerto op.
7
B - Meyerbeer: "Ja, das Gold ist nur
Chimare" (Robert le Diable)
C - Ernst: Der Carneval von Venedig op. 18
Trenis A - Weber: "Himmel, nimm des Dankes
Zahren" (Der Freischütz)
B - Schulhoff: Chant du berger
Pastourelle A - Schubert: "Wenn ich durch Busch und
Zweig" (Widerspruch) op. 105 No.1
B - Mozart: "Der Vogelfanger bin ich, ja"
(Die Zauberflote)
Finale A - Beethoven: Marcia alla turca (Die Ruinen von
Athen)
B - Beethoven: Piano Sonata op. 47 in A major
(Andante movement)
Although the new
quadrille, dedicated "to Vienna's Artists", met with approval from
the guests at the 'Hesperus-Ball', it attracted adverse criticism from certain
sectors, not least from L.A. Zellner in the Blatter für Musik, Theater
und Kunst (12.02.1858): "Even if this musical piece left me with the
particular impression of artistic blasphemy, I shall soothe my feelings with
the thought that the intention must have been a harmless one, with the god of
Fools [the Carnival] reigning, being allowed to do as he likes but unable to
enhance or demean anything. Yet, competent voices are believed to have said
that it was not at all easy to dance to the 'Künstler-Quadrille'. If the fault
was not in the partly inappropriate selections of rhythmically unsuitable
motifs or in the effectless instrumentation here and there, then it must
certainly have been the avenging angels of the serious musical spirits who made
their influence felt and interposed their invisible veto. I shall not argue if
one draws the conclusion from this remark that we do not sympathise with the
said composition of Herr Strauss, and we would not even do so if it had turned
out better than it really did. There must be a certain limit one can go to as a
joke; but beyond that limit there are the shrines which no truly
artistic-minded person - and we count Herr Strauss as one of them - may
approach without deep respect. Having said that, we nevertheless do not
hesitate to defend the brilliant waltz composer against attacks which, even if
they were meant as a joke, would unjustly hurt him".
Lust'ger Rath
Polka française (Merry Councillor. French polka) op. 350
The cover of the
first piano edition of Johann's French polka Lust'ger Rath presents a
lithograph portrait of Albin Swoboda (1836-1901), the German-born actor and
tenor who created the role of Janio, the "merry councillor", in the
first Strauss operetta to reach production: Indigo und die vierzig Rauber
(Indigo and the Fort y Thieves). The stage work received its première at
Vienna's Theater an der Wien on 10 February 1871, a date which proved a
significant day in the history of Viennese theatre. Held to ransom by Jacques
Offenbach's excessive financial demands, the Austrian capital's
theatre-directors desperately sought a means to break free from the seemingly matchless
Frenchman's grip by establishing a competing Viennese operetta school which
would present 'home grown' stage works written by native composers. They
turned, naturally, to Europe's foremost dance music composer - their own Johann
Strauss. With Indigo und die vierzig Rauber their faith in him proved to
be fully justified, and the humorous journal Der Floh (1871, No. 7)
commented: "Johann Strauss is the personification of Austria, and all of
Austria is in his camp and self-consciously and with conviction approved the
resounding manifestation of Austrian-ness. Future generations will tell of the
glorious battle which was fought on 10 February 1871 in the Theater an der
Wien, according to the strategy of the clever diplomat (the director)
Maximilian Steiner". A cartoon in Der Floh depicted Strauss and
Offenbach on a pair of scales, the former seated on the score of Indigo, the
latter laden with a bundle of his own operettas. Offenbach is saying
defensively: "Hah! What does it prove, Herr von Strauss, that you outweigh
me? All the more do I remain the sole representative of pleasing light
music!"
Johann, now
convinced that his future lay in composition for the stage, was noticeable
through his absence from Vienna's ballrooms and concert halls throughout the
first half of 1871. It was thus left to his brother Eduard, who had assumed
sole charge of the Strauss Orchestra upon Johann's 'defection' to the camp of
the operetta composers, to conduct the first performances of the nine separate
orchestral numbers which Johann had put together from melodies in Indigo. Thus
it was that Eduard chose to introduce the Viennese public to the French polka Lust'ger
Rath at his own benefit concert in the Volksgarten on 16 June 1871, and he
used this occasion to launch a new composition of his own - the splendid waltz Fesche
Geister op. 75 - a work which met with just as much applause as his
brother's and which, moreover, has retained its popularity to the present day.
Lust'ger Rath derives its title and opening melody from Janio's Act
1 entrance aria, "Ein lust'ger Rath zu sein, von des Konigs Gnad', ach das
ist sehr fad"' (To be a merry councillor, by the grace of the King, ah
that is very dull), while the second theme is drawn from "Es haust bei uns
im Lande" in the Act 1 Finale. The first melody of the Trio section is to
be found in the Act 3 romance "Ein Bettler zog zum Wald hinaus",
although the theme which follows is nowhere traceable in the published piano
score and may have been discarded during rehearsals before the final version of
the operetta was determined.
In's Centrum!
Walzer (Bullseye! Waltz) op. 387
On 1 July 1880
Johann Strauss signed his name to a contract of sale and purchase, whereby he
bought from Frau Rosa Pacher von Theinburg an imposing and spacious country
seat at Scbonau in Lower Austria. The Schonau villa, close to the Leobersdorf
Southern Railway Station and situated in idyllic parkland some 30 kilometres
south of Vienna, numbered among its former owners the youngest brother of
Emperor Napoleon I, King Jerome of Westphalia (1784-1860). Unlike so many of
the Strauss family domiciles this villa still stands today, and is presently
used by a special unit of the Vienna city police. Here, as Professor Dr. Fritz
Racek has written, "Strauss found the peace and inspiration necessary for
his creative work", and he also cultivated his social life among a wide
circle of friends. On 26 August 1880 Johann and his second wife, Lili (nee
Angelika Dittrich), moved from Bad Voslau, a small town between Baden and Leobersdorf
where they had been spending the first part of their summer holiday - and
where, incidentally, the widowed Adèle Strauss (nee Deutsch), later to become
Johann's third wife, was staying with her little daughter Alice - into the
Schonau villa.
Probably before
moving to Schonau, thus either in Vienna or in Bad Voslau, Strauss completed a
waltz intended for the 1st Austrian Federal Shooting Contest, to be held in the
Vienna Prater between 18-25 July. The entire composition finds Strauss in the
very best of spirits, and the work surely ranks amongst his most exuberant
waltzes - with a surprising Introduction. And the title of the piece? What else
for a shooting competition, but In's Centrum! (Bullseye!). An opening
drum roll and a 'shot' from the percussion herald a solo for zither (replaced
on this recording by the alternative harp and strings specified in the score),
a gentle passage which foreshadows the melody of the principal waltz number.
Another drum roll and 'shot' then lead unexpectedly into one of Johann's
foot-tapping march tunes (later heard in three-quarter time in Waltz 2A) before
a final drum roll, 'shot' and fanfare announce the splendidly spirited opening
waltz number. The surprises do not stop there, for Waltz 3A even calls for a
vocal contribution from the members of the orchestra: "Eins! Zwei! Drei!
(Schuss). Centrum! Hurrah!" (One! Two! Three! (Gunshot). Bullseye!
Hurrah!). Truly, a waltz with everything!
The première of In's
Centrum! was heard during the course of a concert which the Wiener
Mannergesang-Verein (Vienna Men's Choral Association) gave, under the direction
of Eduard Kremser, on 22 July 1880 in the Schützenhalle (Shooting Hall) in the
Prater. The Programme also featured performances by the Strauss Orchestra under
Johann's brother, Eduard, and it was he who conducted the first performance of
the compelling new waltz, besides presenting works by himself and his two
brothers, Wagner and Liszt. Eduard conducted In's Centrum! again on 9
August at another of the Wiener Mannergesang-Verein's festivities, a
'Sommerliedertafel' (Summer Programme of Songs), at Karl Schwender's 'Neue
Welt' entertainment establishment in the Viennese suburb of Hietzing.
Muthig Voran!
Schnell-Polka (Valiantly forward! Quick polka) op. 432
Notwithstanding
his position as Vienna's foremost composer of operettas in the lighter genre, a
realm well suited to his gift for instantly appealing melodies, Johann Strauss
yearned to flirt with a more serious Muse. In 1886, the year after the success
of his operetta Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron), he had discussed
with its librettist, Ignatz Schnitzer, the possibility of building an opera
around the central figure of Napoleon Bonaparte. Although this idea remained
undeveloped, Strauss and Schnitzer that same year collaborated on a comic opera
entitled Der Schelm von Bergen (The Hangman of Bergen). The project was
subsequently abandoned, not least because of the similarity between the stage
work's main character and the peace-loving executioner in the Gilbert and Sullivan
operetta The Mikado, which the touring London Savoy Opera was scheduled to
present in Vienna in September 1886.
Even before work
on Der Schelm von Bergen formally ceased, Strauss had (apparently
surreptitiously) turned his attentions to collaborating with the young Viennese
librettist Victor Leon (real name, Viktor Hirschfeld, 1858-1940) on a treatment
of H.J.C. von Grimmelhausen's Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus (1669), the
greatest German novel of the 17th century. Briefly told, the story concerns the
hero, an innocent child, who flees plundering troops and finds shelter with an
old hermit. The recluse educates him and instructs him in religion, but since
the hermit has little faith in humans, he brings the boy Simplicius up as an
animal. Later, Simplicius is forced to adapt to man's evil ways when he is
kidnapped by soldiers. With its background of the devastating Thirty Years' War
(1618-48), the story proved too weighty for Johann's genius, and his resulting
"serious operetta", entitled Simplicius, found little favour
with the public following its premiere at the Theater an der Wien on 17
December 1887.
Adopting his by
now usual procedure, Johann reworked many of the tunes in Simplicius into
separate orchestral numbers. The score yielded up a total of six such works: a
waltz, a march, a quadrille and three polkas. The unremitting quick polka Muthig
voran! was the last of this sequence of pieces, and was heard for the first
time in the Great Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna on 26 February 1888, conducted
by the composer's brother, Eduard, at one of his regular Sunday afternoon
concerts with the Strauss Orchestra. A glimpse at competing musical
entertainments in the Austrian capital that same afternoon, however, reveals a
second claimant for the première of Muthig voran! - the Freiherr von
Reinlander Infantry Regiment No.24 rounded off their concert in the Stadtpark
Cur-Salon with the new work. A close run race, since both concerts began at
5.00pm, but victory must be awarded to Eduard Strauss whose performance of the
polka was programmed just after the interval.
Johann drew the
melodic material for themes 1A and 1B of Muthig voran! from the Act 1
Ensemble (No. 4) and the Act 3 "Glockenlied", respectively. The first
theme of the Trio section derives from the Act 2 Entree und Chor ("D'rum
sagt ich dir ade, ade o Universitat!"), but nowhere in the published piano
score of Simplicius is its second theme identifiable. It may well be that the
source was cut from the final version of the stage work, a possibility given
greater credence by a remark in a letter Strauss w rote to his friend Gustav
Lewy at the time he was composing Simplicius: "Unfortunately, the score
will be a good third longer than the 'Zigeunerbaron'. It is therefore necessary
that even now care is taken (for example, by means of a practical collaborator)
that several cuts are made wherever possible".
Programme notes
1992 Peter Kemp. The Johann Strauss Society of Great Britain.
The author is
indebted to Professor Franz Mailer for his assistance in the preparation of
these notes.
Czecho-Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra (Kosice)
The East Slovakian town of Kosice boasts a long and distinguished
musical tradition, as part of a province that once provided Vienna with
musicians. The State Philharmonic Orchestra is of relatively recent origin and
was established in 1968 under the conductor Bystrik Rezucha. Subsequent
principal conductors have included Stanislav Macura and Ladislav Slovak, the
latter succeeded in 1985 by his pupil Richard Zimmer. The orchestra has toured
widely in Eastern and Western Europe and plays an important part in the Kosice
Musical Spring and the Kosice International Organ Festival.
For Marco Polo the orchestra has made the first compact disc recordings
of rare works by Granville Bantock and Joachim Raff. Writing on the last of
these, one critic praised the orchestra for its competence comparable to that
of the major orchestras of Vienna and Prague. The orchestra has contributed
several successful volumes to the complete compact disc Johann Strauss II and
for Naxos has recorded a varied repertoire.
Johannes Wildner
Johannes Wildner
was born in the Austrian resort of Mürzzuschlag in 1956 and studied violin and
conducting, taking his diploma at the Vienna Musikhochschule and proceeding to
a doctorate in musicology. A member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, he
has toured widely as leader of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra's Johann Strauss
Ensemble and of the Vienna Mozart Academy. As a conductor he has directed the
Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Emilia Romagna Arturo Toscanini, the Budapest State
Opera Orchestra, the Silesian Philharmonic, the Malmo Symphony Orchestra, the
Dresden Philharmonic and others. He has recorded works by Schumann, Wagner and
Mozart for Naxos and is one of the main conductors in the Marco Polo Johann
Strauss II complete edition. He also conducted at the Arena of Verona, the
Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Radiosymphony-Orchestra of Munich and is
musical director of the Kosice State Philharmonic Orchestra.
Narrow your search
Classical Music
Grossfursten-Marsch, Op. 107 - 2:55 
