The Glory of Strauss
December 31, 2010
Johann Strauss, Jr. and Brahms
WE MAY not have the opportunity to dance the waltzes of Johann Strauss, Jr., but we can revel in the joy and romance of his musical genius on New Year’s Day. Brahms said he would do anything to have written a single Strauss melody. Richard Strauss, not related to the famous Strauss family, said of Johann II:
Of all the God-gifted dispensers of joy, Johann Strauss is to me the most endearing. This first, comprehensive statement can serve as a text for everything I feel about this wonderful phenomenon. In particular, I respect in Johann Strauss [Jr.] his originality, his innate gift. At a time when the whole world around him was tending towards increased complexity, increased reflectiveness, his natural genius enabled him to create from the whole. He seemed to me the last of those who worked from spontaneous inspiration. Yes, the primary, the original, the proto-melody — that’s it.
Johann II, the son of composer and conductor Johann Strauss, Sr., was born in 1825 in Vienna. In the 1860’s, he started to compose his famous waltzes, marches and polkas, including On The Beautiful Blue Danube. His works were always more than dance music. “With their elaborate introductions and codas, their melodic inspiration, their delicately adjusted orchestration, their fine and subtle rhythm, they are authentic contributions to the great musical repertory,” said Harold Schonberg in his The Lives of the Great Composers. Indeed, these are exhiliarating compositions.
Schonberg tells the hilarious story of Strauss’s visit in 1872 to America, where he was commissioned for the immense sum of $100,000 to play fourteen performances of The Blue Danube in Boston with an orchestra of 1,087 musicians. Strauss wrote of the experience:
On the musicians’ tribune there were 20,000 singers, in front of them the members of the orchestra — and these were the people I was supposed to conduct! Twenty assistant conductors had been placed at my disposal to control those gigantic masses, but I was only able to recognize those nearest to me, and although we had had rehearsals, there was no possibility of giving an artistic performance ….
Now, just conceive of my position, face to face with a public of 100,000 Americans. There I stood at the raised desk, high above all others. How would the business start, how would it end? Suddenly a canon shot rang out, a gentle hint for us 20,000-odd to begin playing The Blue Danube. I gave the signal, my twenty assistant conductors followed as quickly and as well as they could, and there broke out an unholy racket such as I shall never forget.
You can listen to a recording of The Blue Danube here. The fairy-tale ballrooms of 19th-century Vienna are gone. Strauss lives on.
— Comments —
Michael S. writes:
Zubin Mehta? Please. I can’t stand that clown.
But I do love Strauss. For our first dance at our wedding my wife and I chose Wiener Blut. Of course, that choice required some careful audio editing on my part…
Prosit Neujahr!
Stephanie Murgas writes:
I really enjoyed the video, and I noted that it was very feminine-centric, since the males only appeared as shadow-clad support (never by themselves) and that in general the females perform their tasks effortlessly, which I believe demonstrates that the demands on these “symbolic” females are neither too lax or too severe. In other words, in a structure as this, both sexes are able to perform “work” (which is what it is for a dancer, of course!) for long, sustained periods of time at high efficiency and skill, to enjoyment. A projected utopia! This period in music is in a stride for the working person, and more specifically for the working classical musician. It is a trip to an aural history museum.
Charles T. writes:
I was pleasantly surprised when I saw your post on Mr. Strauss. Just this morning, before I left for work, my three children gathered around my chair and we listened to this version of The Blue Danube. Mr. Georges Prêtre is the conductor. I noticed how he does more than conduct; he feels the beauty of the music as well; he was enraptured by it. My children loved the music and the beautiful European scenes that were coupled with this performance. Several months ago, all of us listened to this same waltz. My middle son exclaimed then – “That was so beautiful!” It is becoming a family favorite. I remember working on a simplified version of this for piano when I was a child. My love for this waltz has never faded. Thank you for posting this pleasant topic.
Mabel Le Beau writes:
After several years of the scratchy record-player at Mrs. Topoloski’s folk dance lessons learning to polka, reels, jigs, fling, and line dancing from the Japanese Coal Miner, to Greek-style, and the hora, we took up the waltz. Of course, when one is 9 or 10, there is a problem with boys attending dance class, so we girls all learned the 1, 2-3, 1, 2-3 whirling and whirling, but partnerless. It is hard to sit still when one hears a waltz. Imagination takes flight. One becomes part of the music, partner or not.
Some waltzes are easy for beginning instrumentalists to learn to play recognizably as tunes, and are added to obligatory school programs or provide entertainment for one’s parents in a private family concert. As a fifth-grader, it was quite exciting to observe audiences ‘swept up’ in the the Beautiful Blue Danube.
The next year, in sixth grade, for our Valentine’s Day party we asked Mrs. Kerbow if we could have an ice-skating party on the rink outside our classroom, with hot chocolate and cinnamon cookies for refreshment. And, we asked if waltzes could be played on the public address system. Heaven. I was notably clumsy on skates, so much so that the main thing I knew was how to fall down gracefully without breaking anything, but waltz on ice we did. And, with the sixth grade boys. Admittedly, hockey skates are not figure-skates but imagination is a wonderful thing.
A couple springtimes ago, my son and I were listening to a small orchestra in a Vienna Opera House play the lovely Strauss piece, and I noted that still to this day, waltzing reminds me of a February nip of cold, whirling on ice, and hot chocolate to follow.
