Wiener Couplets, Walzer, Op. 150 - Josef Strauss

"Viennese Couplets". In the autumn of 1863, for the final concert of the season in the Heitzinger amusement park "Neue Welt", Josef Strauss announced a new waltz entitled Wiener Couplets. The premiere did not take place until 4th October in the Volksgarten. The occasion was a festival concert in honor of Emperor Franz Josef, while birthday was celebrated with this event. However, Josef did not use any of the popular Couplets of the current theater repertoire or from productions of the folk-singers' association which were then particularly numerous in Vienna; rather, he created melodies of his own for his waltz, which fit in splendidly in the millieu of Viennese couplets. Josef himself unwittingly but very successfully contributed the melodies for some Viennese songs and couplets which later became popular. The illustrator of the title page of the piano score of the waltz, which was the last composition of Josef to be published by Carl Haslinger, was inspired by three couplets from popular stage works of the early Victorian era: Lumpacivagabundus by Johann Nestroy, Das Mädchen aus der feenwelt oder Der Bauer als Millionär by Ferdinand Raimund and the folk-play Der Verschwender. Josef's waltz remained for a long time in the Strauss orchestra's repertoire.

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Painting: Nestroy with Karl Treumann and Wenzel Scholz in Der böse Geist Lumpazivagabundus

Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Arthur Kulling