.:Language:.
--- Deutsch
--- English

.:EJSF:.
--- Information
--- --- Jabuka
--- --- Spitzentuch
--- Stageworks

.:TANZ-SIGNALE:
--- Info 2012
--- --- Folder (pdf)
--- Info 2011
--- --- Folder (pdf)
--- Info 2010
--- --- Review
--- Info 2009
--- --- Programme
--- --- Reviews
--- Programme 2008
--- --- Details
--- Programme 2007
--- --- Topic
--- --- Birthplace Josef
--- Programme 2006
--- Programme 2005
--- Programme 2004
--- Sponsors

.:FAMILY:.
--- Family tree
--- Dr. Eduard Strauss

.:WORTH-KNOWING:.
--- Debut orchestra
--- Blue Danube Waltz
--- Forgery in 1941

.:WISF:.
--- Contact
--- Award

Reviews by

> Peter Kemp
> George Hamilton

Peter Kemp – Honorary Life President of the Johann Strauss Society of Great Britain – wrote in Newsletter Issue 260, May 2009 on pages 16 & 17:

TANZ-SIGNALE 2009

From 19-22 March 2009, the Wiener Institut für Strauss-Forschung (The Vienna Institute for Strauss Research) once more played host to another Tanz-Signale symposium, the sixth such event they have organised. On this occasion the venue was the Lecture Hall of the Vienna University Department of Music, and it was especially gratifying that the audience included a number of young and enthusiastic students. The topic chosen for this year’s symposium was “The Strauss Operetta Factory” and it brought together theatre directors, conductors, producers and musicologists to analyse the operettas which resulted from the close collaboration between Johann Strauss II and Richard Genée during the period 1870 to 1883. The presentations comprised “Why Operettas Fail” (Otto Brusatti); “Richard Genée – a Family View” (Pierre Genée); “Richard Genée: Driving Force and sine qua non of Viennese Operetta” (Volker Klotz); “’Your Majesty’ – Censored” (Norbert Nischkauer); “Between Traditional Roles and Individuality. Women’s Roles in the Strauss Operettas of the 1870s and early 1880s” (Marion Linhardt); “The Operetta of the Belle Époque in Vienna – Described with the Help of Some Unfamiliar Examples” (Stefan Schmidl); “’Stroked with Bristles’. On Musical Barbs in 19th-century Operetta” (Martin Lichtfuss); “The Symbolism of Keys in the Early Operettas of Johann Strauss II” (Fritz Schweiger); “The Strauss & Genée Music Workshop – ‘where we share our musical ideas’” (Norbert Rubey). As Oswald Panagl was indisposed, Thomas Aigner gave an unscheduled talk about the operetta Jabuka (1894), inspired by the new Naxos CD recording of the work. As in previous years, the symposium proper concluded with a ‘round table’ discussion of experts from various disciplines, the subject for 2009 being “Is it still the time for Strauss Operettas?”.

Delegates and participants were also given the chance to hear some excellent live music performances during the Tanz-Signale. Jocelyne Rainer Gilbert (violin) and Ingomar Rainer (piano) delighted their audience with arrangements of dance pieces from Johann Strauss II’s Cagliostro in Wien, Prinz Methusalem and Blindekuh, while the sensational young Hungarian composer and pianist, Judit Varga, performed the Cagliostro in Wien Potpourri No 1 and various paraphrases on Johann II’s music with great fire and expression. On the final day of the symposium (after the writer had departed for home), a completely sold-out operetta concert was given in the Sträusselsäle of the Theater in der Josefstadt, with soloists Laura Scherwitzl (sop.), Günther Strahlegger (bar.) and Stephen Delaney (piano). The presenter was Otto Brusatti and Austrian bassoonist Marion Janda appeared as a surprise guest.

On the evening of 21 March, a memorial service for Eduard Strauss II (1910-1969), our first Honorary Patron, was held at the Schottenkirche (Unsere Liebe Frau zu den Schotten) in the Freyung. During the course of this service, lessons were read by Dr Eduard Strauss’s two sons, Michi and Thomas – both of whom, like their father, as well as Johann II and Josef Strauss, had studied at the Schottengymnasium. In addition, Dr Strauss, Michi and Thomas each made a personal supplication to God in the name of their father/grandfather. The Schola Cantorum choir, of which Dr Eduard and his sons are members, contributed two a capella performances: Franz Schubert’s Deutsche Messe (D 872) and Johann Strauss II’s youthful composition, the ‘Graduale’ “Tu qui regis totum orbem”. For the performance of the ‘Graduale’, the choir used the performing material prepared over 20 years ago by our member Norman Godel.

There follows a report on the 2009 Tanz-Signale symposium by our long-term American member George Hamilton, who has worked for over 40 years as a journalist and travel writer in Vienna. We are exceedingly grateful to George, stoically labouring through a bout of the ague, for this insightful review.

Peter Kemp

George Hamilton wrote on pages 17 & 18:

“TANZ-SIGNALE” SCORES BRILLIANTLY – AGAIN

Anyone privileged to have participated in the 2008 “Tanz-Signale” symposium in Vienna needed no reminder about the 2009 event which took place this past March. If there was a question, it was one of speculation as to whether - and how - our Honorary Patron Dr Eduard Strauss and his compact team of experts could possibly top the 2008 experience. Both in its concept and in its execution, last year’s “Tanz-Signale” achieved a high point in the series of symposia which began in 2004 to mark the 200th anniversary of Johann Strauss the Elder’s birth. The focus in 2008 was Viennese dance music and its relationship to the “second Viennese school” of composers (foremost representatives being Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern) and their milieu; many are aware of the ties between the two so apparently disparate “schools” of composition, but these links proved to be remarkably extensive and fascinating in detail.
Could Dr Strauss surpass the 2008 celebration? In a word, yes. The sixth annual “Tanz-Signale” (the title borrowed from Strauss Father’s waltz, opus 218) again this year confirmed its status as the most significant undertaking available to anyone interested or involved in 19th century Viennese “light” music. The successful program as in earlier years ranged from concert and recital performances to scholarly but understandable (at least to those with a modicum of German) presentations, with live or recorded illustrations to emphasize particular points. “Tanz-Signale” has support from the Vienna Institute for Strauss Research, the University of Vienna’s Institute for Music, the City of Vienna’s extensive archives and library plus private resources and archives such as Norbert Nischkauer’s vast and superbly organised operetta collection.
All of these were substantial contributors to the 2009 programme which examined the role of Johann Strauss Son and other familiar names in creating what amounted to an “operetta factory” in the 1800s and continuing on into the 1900s. A surprise “Tanz-Signale” participant this year was Dr Pierre Genée who assessed the role of his great-grandfather Richard Genée in developing both operetta texts and music. Other presentations analysed the sometimes-strained relationship between Genée and Johann Strauss II. Discussions revealed fascinating but less obvious aspects of the operetta business of the day, such as musical devices of scoring and underscoring that managed to circumvent the prevalent censorship of that period. Women, both as leading ladies and in “Hosenrollen” (wearing the trousers) were considered.
Conversations spilled over into lunch and dinner breaks. The nearby Beethovenstüberl filled to overflowing, giving participants a chance to put questions (or other points of view!) to the speakers and top experts on Viennese music. Included at one table or another were names familiar as authors of some of the best and most comprehensive books in the field: our own Peter Kemp, Otto Brusatti, Volker Klotz, Norbert Linke. And chances to discuss interpretations or recording plans with arranger-conductor Christian Pollack, or with representatives from Strauss societies in the Czech Republic or Germany. What a treat!
The sparkplug behind the “Tanz-Signale” planning and activity is Dr Strauss and his family with splendid backing from charming wife Susi and sons Michael and Thomas (Edi and Susi both agreed that neither of the boys would be rewarded [or burdened] with one of the family names of Johann, Josef or Eduard, lineage notwithstanding). On the academic side of the “Tanz-Signale”, the team of organisers Thomas Aigner and Norbert Rubey have consistently brought together not only output from their own research but also tapped other resources as speakers and ‘round table’ participants. This year these included Michael Lakner, manager of the Bad Ischl Lehár operetta festival and Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz of the Vienna Volksoper; both had meaningful (and commercially tested) comments on the problems and realistic prospects for operetta on contemporary stages.
If all of this activity sounds to serious aficionados like the legendary and idyllic Camelot, perhaps it is. For three days a year, Viennese music, thanks to Dr Strauss and the Institute for Strauss Research, moves to center stage. At least some of the ideas and initiatives introduced during the “Tanz-Signale” gain momentum, witness more CDs on the market and public successes of operettas sensibly staged and well sung. If there were a wish to be left with Dr Strauss following each of the “Tanz-Signale” symposia, it would be that financing (and the necessary capable personnel) could be found to edit and publish the outstanding papers which the events generate.
So what’s ahead? In the early 1950s an LP appeared in the US with otherwise then-unknown Johann Strauss II items played by Howard Barlow and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra; Barlow had found original scores sent from Austria in 1938 and hidden away in the US Library of Congress for safe-keeping during the war! Discoveries including the waltzes Nordseebilder, op. 390 and Telegrafische Depeschen, op. 195. Then a couple of years later the splendid Vanguard Strauss LP series with rarities galore appeared with the Vienna Volksoper Orchestra, Anton Paulik conducting. Later the superb Boskovsky Ensemble series followed. I had no clue then that in 1966 I’d be living in Vienna, experiencing Edi Strauss’ father conducting the Vienna Symphony in the City Hall courtyard or that we’d be assisting among other projects with a recording of Wiener Blut excerpts featuring a star cast under Robert Stolz. Even further from my wildest imagination was that in 30-40 years hence (today!), I’d have virtually every work of Strauss Father and Son and Josef within easy reach on convenient CDs. “Tanz-Signale”? Let it thrive and continue to reward unfulfilled dreams! Camelot? Are you ready?

George Hamilton, Vienna, 29 April 2009

>>> up <<<