The brilliance of happiness

12/07/11 10:29
(http://www.klassa.bg/)

The brilliance of happiness

by Petar PLAMENOV

8 December (Thursday), Hall 1, 20:00, 40-150BGN
9 December (Friday), Hall 1, 20:00, 40-150BGN

National Palace of Culture
NPC
New Year Festival
Address: Sofia, 1 Bulgaria Sqr.
Phone: 02 916 63 69
Phone: 02 916 63 68

Classical Viennese dance music may be loved all over the world but its authentic interpretation can only be gained at the source. The charm of a people who have become one with their music cannot be handed down through the ages and across the seas by musical notation alone. Elegance, romance and Grandeur of 19th-century Viennese ballrooms in a concert of the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra. This magical show is a sparkling blend of Viennese light classics and theatricality.

As true Viennese artists, the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra possesses a matchless warmth and sense of style, and they retain the exact instrumentation which their founder set in 1844! To this day, the Vienna Johann Strauß Orchestra continues its mission bringing to life the immortal tunes of Viennese music, manifest in the compositions of the Strauß dynasty and thus giving joy to countless listeners all over the world. Founded by Johann Strauss, Jr. in 1844 and renewed by great grandson Eduard Strauss in 1966, the VJSO carries on the great family tradition in Vienna’s famed Musikverein and in tours abroad to halls such as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and Boston’s Symphony Hall.

On July 31, 1844 Johann Strauss, Jr. applied for a license “to pursue his livelihood as a music director with an orchestra of 45 players.” In October of that same year he conducted his first concert at Dommayer’s Casino in Hietzing with musicians who had signed on to “gather for rehearsals and productions punctually at the hours set by Herr Kapellmeister Strauss, in order to fulfill the required duties with zeal and diligence and be unrelenting in the effort to produce the best results,” and with that the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra was born.

The orchestra soon started out on concert tours to acquaint audiences abroad with waltzes, polkas, mazurkas and quadrilles. Later Johann Strauss, Jr. was too much in demand and so he gave the organization of the orchestra to his youngest brother Eduard. Twice, in 1890 and in 1900 / 01, Eduard Strauß took his orchestra to the United States and both times their tour was a triumph: they had the continent at their feet. In 1965 outstanding musicians from all famous Viennese orchestras united to renew the "Vienna Johann Strauss-Orchestra.", In October 1966, Eduard Strauß took this new Vienna Johann Strauß Orchestra on its first tour of North America and Canada. Willi Boskovsky, Kurt Wöss, and Alfred Eschwé followed as chief conductors. Under their leadership the orchestra was invited for extensive concert tours (including appearances at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and Boston Symphony Hall) and standard-setting recordings of the almost complete works of the Strauß dynasty for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation.

The genius of Johann Strauss II (1825 - 1899)genius lay in his ability to take the popular salon music of Vienna in the early decades of the 19th century – with its clear emphasis on melody and dance rhythms – and convert it into music which not only became fashionable but which in time evolved into high art. His conducting talents (and that of his father's before him) were clearly of prime importance in achieving these aims.

Johann Strauss Jr was born into a musical dynasty of just one generation. His father, Johann Strauss Sr came from a desperately unhappy Viennese family; the mother died when he was seven and the drunken innkeeper father committed suicide. Johann Sr's behavior to his own family was little better; by the time he was in his late twenties he was being openly unfaithful to his wife, by whom he had six children. Johann Jr saw little of his father who set up house in a dingy flat in Vienna with his mistress, by whom he proceeded to have five more children, all born out of wedlock. Although Strauss Sr was by then internationally famous as a composer of superior dance music (played by his own orchestra), he banned any of his own children from following in his footsteps, considering it too risky and fragile an occupation.

Although the 3/4 beat is usually a bit heavy and repetitive in musical composition, Strauss used all his tricks to make his Viennese Waltzes enjoyable, light and full of surprises: changes of tempo, contrasting sections, variety of melodic themes, changes of power, alternance of sweet violin melodies and strong trumpet fanfares. Viennese Waltzes usually last around 10 minutes and always combine intimate melodies as well as flamboyant tunes. Finally, most conductors have a very subtle way of conducting Viennese Waltzes where they delay very slightly the second and third beat, creating more dynamics and avoiding monotony.