The Strauss Phenomenon – On the Bicentenary of the Birth of Johann Strauss II
An underage student drop-out from the commercial section of the Polytechnic Institute (today’s Technical University) completed some fast-track courses in thoroughbass with the music theorist and composer Joseph Drechsler and for the violin with Anton Kohlmann, a member of the Court Opera Orchestra. With the favourable testimonials the two teachers gave him he applied to the Vienna City Council for permission to perform in public. This was granted despite intervention by his father.
Despite the gaps in his musical education (where had he learned how to compose, orchestrate or set words to music?) he launched himself on an unprecedented career, also with some discreetly provided musical support. He made use of the methods his father had used so successfully and developed them. He succeeded in getting his brothers Josef and Eduard to join his music business. He was supported by his mother Anna and his first wife Jetty and then later, following their deaths, by his third wife Adele.
A myth grew up around his persona and his music. But could he always live up to this? On the one hand we have his unprecedented successes from Russia to America, on the other his inner doubts in both the private and professional spheres. How has posterity reacted to this discrepancy? A look at even the most recent Strauss literature leads us to ask whether there is a demand for the truth or whether in future there will be any point in undertaking serious Strauss research.
His authentic biography must at long last be made available and his music performed once more in its original form. Moreover, it is essential to indicate practical and sustainable ways in which his music can be treated in future and brought to people and cultures that have had little or no contact with it.
In 2025, the Dance Signals will offer twenty-two lectures, a round-table discussion and a range of musical performances to present facts, disprove myths and discuss new approaches. How can the cultural and artistic value of Johann Strauss II be preserved in the future for Vienna and Austria, and his market value be increased in a profitable way on these premisses?
Norbert Rubey
English translation: Leigh Bailey
Venues:
House of Strauss (Casino Zögernitz): 1190 Vienna, Döblinger Hauptstrasse 76
Austrian Theatre Museum: 1010 Vienna, Lobkowitzplatz 2
Concordia Press Club: 1010 Vienna, Bankgasse 8
Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna (MUK): 1010 Vienna, Johannesgasse 4a
Programme Preview
Wednesday, 12 March, 6 p.m., House of Strauss (Casino Zögernitz)
Vienna Strauss Colloquium (Keynote Lecture)
Music (Contemporary arrangements for string quartet)
Thursday, 13 March, 10 a.m.– 5.30 p.m., Austrian Theatre Museum
Symposium (Lectures with musical examples)
Guided tour through the exhibition
Thursday, 13 March, 7 p.m., Concordia Press Club
Symposium (Lecture)
Music (Contemporary arrangements for guitar)
Friday, 14 March, 10 a.m.–12.00 a.m., Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna (MUK)
Symposium (Lectures with musical examples)
Musical performance (Ensemble scenes in Strauss’s operettas)
Friday, 14 March, 2 p.m.– 5.30 p.m., House of Strauss
Strauss animated video from HoS exhibition
Symposium (Lectures with musical examples)
Saturday, 15 March, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., House of Strauss
Symposium (Lectures with musical examples)
Musical performance (Strauss couplets for Girardi)
Musical performance (Strauss’s violin playing and interpretation)
Sunday, 16 March, 11 a.m., House of Strauss
Schrammel Quartet (Original arrangements)
Sunday, 16 March, 3 p.m.–8 p.m., House of Strauss
Round Table Conference (Audience invited to participate)
5 p.m., Orchestral concert (Dances and marches)
6.30 p.m., Operetta concert (STRAUSS and his OPERETTA EU)