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About the size of the orchestra that Johann Strauss junior conducted at his debut!Many writers on Strauss, unfortunately even quite recent ones, tell their
readers that Johann Strauss junior conducted an orchestra of 12 to 15
players. What is correct is that, in the course of making careful preparations
for his debut, Strauss declared his intention of becoming a director of
music to the municipal authorities in Vienna and, in doing so –
and please note that it was in connection with the assessment of his income
tax liability, made a statement to the effect that he was ‘minded
to perform with 12 to 15 persons’ (Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv
H.A.- Akten Hist. 2/1844 fol. 5-6). However, on 8 October 1844, that is
to say just seven days before his first appearance on 15 October 1844,
a contract of employment with Strauss was signed by precisely 24
musicians. There is documentary proof of this: the contract is still existent
(Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek I.N. 202.144). It includes a clause
banning substitutes – both for rehearsals and performances, and
was to run for one year. It is impossible to imagine that the young novice
could afford the cost of having more or less a complete second orchestra
sitting, as it were, on the substitutes’ bench. Beside that Strauss
would have needed these 25 musicians – including himself, that is
– to give performances of competitive standard of the works on the
programme of his debut concert. This includes such waltzes as Joseph Lanner’s
Die Schönbrunner and his father’s well-known Loreley-Rhein-Klänge,
not to mention the overture to Auber’s opera La Muette de Portici
or even his own first compositions. There are no later reports of the
actual number of musicians who played on that debut-evening. On the basis
of the known facts there were 25 musicians playing (24,
plus Strauss himself). |