Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald [antikvár]

"But he is the most musical pate in Europe All hail to our classics from Mozart to Strauss!" (Richard Wagner on Johann Strauss.) Johann Strauss, the younger, (born i 1825 in Vienna, and died there in 1899) is, with his great compalriot Franz Schubert, the incarnation of ail that is Viennese. The joy of living is mirrored in his wonderful Waltz tunes which poured from him in unexhaustible supply. He was in incomparable boon to mankind. His talent was honoured by Richard Wagner and Peter Cornelius also by Johannes Brahms and Anton Bruckner, and as a tribute from the present generation he has been crowned the "Waltz King". Johann Strauss is immortal in the realm of all musical dance forms which existed in his day. One only has to consider the wealth of dance measures of all kinds which are stored in his "Fledermaus", one of the master's 19 operettas I And in the lightly moving J rhythm he remains without a peer down lo the present day. The wide-spread and unexampled popularity ofStrauss's dance pieces, however, does not alter the fact that, out of about 500 separate works, hardly any have appeared in full score, either during the composer's lifetime or since his death. (Only the Waltzes "An der schönen blauen Donau", "Wein, Weib und Gesang" and „Du und Du" are exceptions; were published in the Peters Edition, Leipzig 1899 "Morgenblätter"; and "Neuwien" in "Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich", Univeral-Edilion, Vienna 1925.) Conductors have up to now had to make shift with piano scores insufficiently cued. It is greatly to the credit of the Ernst Eulenburg Edition of Leipzig that they should have undertaken to reveal to the full the most famous dance tunes of Strauss through the present miniature score. In the process of creating a reliable score from the orchestral parts, great care had to be taken to remove the existing mistakes in the instrumental parts, which had gradually crept in. The rendering of the Strauss Waltzes is at first sight childishly simple, and yet a book might be written on the way the composer and more especially his younger brother Edward conducted them, down to the turn of the century. This interpretation is still a living memory to the elder Viennese people, and to the credit of the younger generation it has been handed down by them. Enticing though it was for the editor to borrow the extensive authentic directions, in order to ensure tradition, he refrained from it, from the fear of trans-gressing the laws of musical historic truth. Neveriheless he thinks he may be held responsible without fear for the introduction of the ornamental markings in brackets. The light character of the musical genre is subsiduary to the modish taste of the period. The magic of Johann Strauss' melodies, adored for years by the whole world can never be broken. Vienna, January 1930 Prof. Viktor Keldorfer