Glückskinder, Walzer, Op. 124 - Josef Strauss

"Children of Fortune". Josef Strauss composed the waltz Glückskinder in the spring of 1862. The first performance was advertised for the charity concert of the Strauss orchestra, which was to have taken place on 17th June 1862 at Weghuber’s establishment on the former Burgglacis, where the Volkstheater now stands. A rainy period, however, forced the festival to be postponed several times, and so the composer decided to save the waltz for another event, the traditional celebration for the feast of St Anne, which accordingly took place on 25th July in the garden of Weghuber’s coffee-house. This date is confirmed by the entry in Josef’s notes and the annotations of the horn player Franz Sabay. Perhaps Josef Strauss was already aware that he had to travel to Russia in a few days’ time, in order to take the place of his brother Johann in conducting the summer concerts in Pavlovsk, near St Petersburg. Nevertheless, he did not feel like a child of fortune. He only made the trip because his mother asked him to. By the time that the waltz Glückskinder appeared in print on 17th September 1862, the painful separation from his beloved wife Caroline was almost over.

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