Post by erik on Mar 6, 2021 18:19:32 GMT -5
The Waltz King, Johann Strauss II, is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight with a waltz from late in his life whose title was inspired by a part of the very poem that informed an immortal work of Beethoven's.
Johann Strauss II: SEID UMSCHLUNGEN, MILLIONEN, OP. 443
Even if he or the rest of his family didn’t invent the dance form for which they became famous, Johann Strauss II was the single greatest practitioner of the Viennese waltz. With the number of waltzes (not to mention polkas) in the dozens, it can be said that Strauss, even when it was sometimes for the purposes of money or for a need for public dancing, composed with an almost Zen easiness. Works like the Emperor Waltz, “Vienna Blood”, “Morning Papers”, “Voices Of Spring”, “Accelerations”, “Tales From The Vienna Woods”, and, most popularly, “The Blue Danube” in fact were not only waltzes of extreme public popularity, but also arguably symphonic tone poems. Invariably, of course, age slowed the man known as the Waltz King down as the 19th century was coming to a close; but Strauss still had some tricks up his sleeve. Significantly, one of the late compositions in the Strauss canon was a ten minute-long waltz entitled “Seid Umschlungen, Millionen”, or “Be Embraced, You Millions”. Strauss, without any shame but with plenty of admiration, took the title from a passage in Friedrich von Schiller’s famous poem “Ode To Joy” that served as the epic choral finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony from almost seven decades before. Most importantly, he dedicated this particular waltz to a close friend and Beethoven follower, Johannes Brahms, whose First Symphony (from 1876) contained melodic fragments of the Beethoven Ninth in its finale. The waltz, which seems to contain a melodic fragment that became the basis for the song “I Could Have Danced All Night” for the Lerner & Lowe musical “My Fair Lady”, was premiered in March 1892 in the Great Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, to sizeable acclaim, although, because of the extreme popularity of its predecessors and the symphony that partly inspired it, it hasn’t received quite the same amount of performances, even by the Vienna Philharmonic. As a fitting tribute, when Strauss passed away seven years later, in 1899, he was laid to rest in the Vienna Central Cemetery, alongside Brahms, Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and Antonio Salieri.
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/ANDRIS NELSONS (Sony)
Live recording from the Vienna Musikverein (January 1, 2020):
Johann Strauss II: SEID UMSCHLUNGEN, MILLIONEN, OP. 443
Even if he or the rest of his family didn’t invent the dance form for which they became famous, Johann Strauss II was the single greatest practitioner of the Viennese waltz. With the number of waltzes (not to mention polkas) in the dozens, it can be said that Strauss, even when it was sometimes for the purposes of money or for a need for public dancing, composed with an almost Zen easiness. Works like the Emperor Waltz, “Vienna Blood”, “Morning Papers”, “Voices Of Spring”, “Accelerations”, “Tales From The Vienna Woods”, and, most popularly, “The Blue Danube” in fact were not only waltzes of extreme public popularity, but also arguably symphonic tone poems. Invariably, of course, age slowed the man known as the Waltz King down as the 19th century was coming to a close; but Strauss still had some tricks up his sleeve. Significantly, one of the late compositions in the Strauss canon was a ten minute-long waltz entitled “Seid Umschlungen, Millionen”, or “Be Embraced, You Millions”. Strauss, without any shame but with plenty of admiration, took the title from a passage in Friedrich von Schiller’s famous poem “Ode To Joy” that served as the epic choral finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony from almost seven decades before. Most importantly, he dedicated this particular waltz to a close friend and Beethoven follower, Johannes Brahms, whose First Symphony (from 1876) contained melodic fragments of the Beethoven Ninth in its finale. The waltz, which seems to contain a melodic fragment that became the basis for the song “I Could Have Danced All Night” for the Lerner & Lowe musical “My Fair Lady”, was premiered in March 1892 in the Great Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, to sizeable acclaim, although, because of the extreme popularity of its predecessors and the symphony that partly inspired it, it hasn’t received quite the same amount of performances, even by the Vienna Philharmonic. As a fitting tribute, when Strauss passed away seven years later, in 1899, he was laid to rest in the Vienna Central Cemetery, alongside Brahms, Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and Antonio Salieri.
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/ANDRIS NELSONS (Sony)
Live recording from the Vienna Musikverein (January 1, 2020):