J. Strauss: The Blue Danube

This is a digital recording, released on Deutsche Grammophon in 1983, and originally released in 1981.

## Details

Johann Strauss (Sohn) (1825-1899)

1. **The Blue Danube op. 314 - Waltz** - 11:44
2. **Eljen a Magyar! op. 332 - Hungarian fast Polka** - 2:35
3. **Accelerations op. 234 - Waltz** - 9:12
4. **Persian March op. 289** - 2:00
5. **"Die Fledermaus": Overture** - 8:37
6. **Light of Heart op. 319 - fast Polka** - 2:29
7. **Artists' Life op. 316 - Waltz** - 10:08
8. **Thunder and Lightning op. 324 - fast polka** - 3:08

Total length: 50 minutes

* Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker
* Conductor: Herbert von Karajan

Recorded: Berlin, Germany, 6 & 12/1980

Catalogue Numbers:

* CD: 400 026-2
* LP: 2532 025
* Cassette: 3302 025

## Liner Notes

The "Waltz King", Johann Strauss, at the time nearly 70 and a composer and conductor for half a century, once described his waltzes modestly as a "feeble attempt to extend the form handed down to me by my father and Lanner". This was a patent understatement, for it was with the younger Strauss that the Viennese waltz attained its classical perfection. Weber had established the general form in his *Invitation to the Dance* of 1819: slow introduction, chain of waltzes, coda of reminiscences. This was the model for the elder Johann Strauss and Joseph Lanner, and it was adopted in turn by Johann Strauss jr. Gradually, however, he expanded both introduction and coda, turning the former into a poetic mood-painting and treating both sections in a quasi-symphonic manner. But the essence of his accomplishment lay in the waltzes themselves. In his hands they took on an organic structure, in which coherent musical logic replaced the rather jerky kaleidoscope of waltzes by his father and Lanner, with motives and themes growing out of one another with apparent inevitability. Add to this his inexhaustible fund of memorable tunes (there are eight to ten different themes in a Strauss waltz set), his keen sense of contrast between sustained cantabile and strongly rhythmic ideas, and his ear for brilliant orchestration, and you have the secret of his great waltzes. They transform pure *Gebrauchsmusik* (utility music) into music to be enjoyed for its own sake: they are equally at home in the ballroom of the concert hall.

Among Strauss's 160-odd waltzes there are a dozen or so which represent the peak of his achievement in this genre; most of them were written between 1860 and 1873. Of these pride of place must go to *The Blue Danube*, today regarded as Austria's unofficial national anthem. It was composed in 1867 for the Vienna Men's Choral Society but found little favour with the Viennese in its original choral version. Not until the Paris World Exhibition in the spring of that year, when it was performed without chorus, did the work first receive with the acclaim that has accompanied it ever since. *Accelerations* (1860) initiated the series of Strauss's master waltzes. It is said that he wrote it in the morning after a ball and played it with his orchestra that very evening! The title evidently derives from the scurrying quaver (eighth notes) movement of the first of its five waltzes. *Artists' Life* (1867), composed just five days after the *Blue Danube*, is no less alluring in its suggestion of the grace and lightheartedness of Vienna's artistic world of the day. Typically, the introduction in both cases adumbrates the theme of the first waltz. *Die Fledermaus* (1874) is the very epitome of the classical Viennese operetta, and its hallmark is, not unexpectedly, the waltz. The Overture is a pot-pourri of the most memorable of the operetta's tunes, with the coruscating waltz from Act II as centrepiece.

The polka, said to have originated in Bohemia and so popular in the 19th century, as in 2/4 time and takes the form A-B (Trio)-A. Strauss wrote some wrote 120 polkas, virtually all containing humorous descriptive touches - as in the case of *Leichtes Blut* ("Light of Heart", 1867) and that of *Unter Donner und Blitz* ("Thunder and Lighting", 1868). *Eljen a Magyar!* (1869), which is based on popular Hungarian tunes, introduces in its coda the opening of the famous *Rákóczy March*. The *Persian March* is composed in a marked quasi-oriental vein and uses a good deal of percussion to heighten its exotic effect.

*Mosco Carner*

## Links

For the playlist of the album, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2FZCz-PQfE&list=OLAK5uy\_nhspJwTtlHd9RA3a3Ia0puMOViS6PedD8

For more details on the album, click here: https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/strauss-ii-schoene-blaue-donau-karajan-2307

For the official Deutsche Grammophon website, click here: https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en