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Johann Strauss II
Martha Quadrille
op. 46 (1848)

On 25 November 1847 the k.k. Hof-Operntheater, situated beside the Kärntnerthor, opened its doors to the première of a four-act opera written especially for Vienna and entitled Martha ader der Markt van Richmond" (Martha, or The Fair at Richmond). Based on the ballet-pantomime Lady Henriette, ou La Servante de Greenwich (Lady Henrietta, or the Servant-Girl of Greenwich) by J.H. Vernoy de Saint-Georges, the text for Martha was the work of W. Friedrich (real name: Friedrich Wilhelm Riese) while the music had been written by the German composer Friedrich Freiherr von Flotow (1812-83), who had earlier contributed the music for one act of Saint-Georges's ballet (1844). From the royal box at the Hof-Operntheater, the Austrian Emperor Ferdinand (1793-1875) attended the first night of Martha, and was able to witness its triumphant success. The opera swiftly spread around the world: on 4 June 1849 the stage work reached England - the setting for Flotow's gentle, sentimental comedy - when a German-language production was mounted at London's Drury Lane Theatre.

Within days of the world première of Martha, melodies from Flotow's tuneful score were being sung, played and whistled throughout the Austrian capital. With his ever-present keen commercial sense, Johann Strauss Father (1804-49) - "the matador of all dance-music directors", as Der Wanderer (10.01.1848) termed him - hastened to arrange the most attractive melodies from the opera into a Martha-Quadrille (op. 215), which he first conducted at the 'Sperl' on 18 December 1847 and the piano score of which his publisher (Tobias Haslingers Witwe und Sohn) was able to announce on 30 December that year. Such is the welter of melodies in Flotow's score that the elder Johann was able to fashion three alternative figures (No. 2 'Été', No. 5 'Pastourelle' and No. 6 'Finale') "to be interchanged as figures, according to one's wishes": these additional sections are extant only in the piano edition of the quadrille, while the published set of orchestral parts include only an alternative 'Été' figure.

While Martha was first delighting audiences at the Hof-Operntheater and Johann Strauss Father was reaping the success of his Martha-Quadrille, the younger Johann Strauss was on a strenuous concert tour of the Balkans with his orchestra. News of Flotow's triumph had evidently reached him via his publisher in Vienna, H.F. Müller, for on 10 January 1848 Der Wanderer reported: "Strauss Son, whom we thought was dead for this year's Vienna Carnival, is showing signs of life by way of a 'Martha-Quadrille', which will appear in a few days' time from Müller in the Kohlmarkt. The publisher sent on to him in Siebenbürgen [= Transylvania] the score [of the opera], and this demonstrates splendidly how vigorous the demand is for Strauss Son's compositions and how very popular are his quadrilles...". Manifestly, the younger Johann could only have arranged his Martha-Quadrille during his tour, and there is virtually no chance that he had sight of his father's compilation before constructing his own. It is therefore all the more remarkable that - with one exception - Johann junior chose entirely different themes from those selected by his father: the material used for the No. 2 ('Été') figure is almost identical with that used in figure No. 5 ('Pastourelle') of Strauss Father's Martha-Quadrille. (The fact that both Strausses could avoid such duplication is, of course, further evidence of the profusion of melodies in Flotow's opera.)

Johann Strauss (Sohn): Martha-Quadrille op. 46 (Titelblatt)
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