‘I advised my brother – in order to win the Petersburg engagement for himself (I had already been there 10 times & earned a lot of money) to compose something they would get excited about in Petersburg and suggested that he should do a pizzicato polka. He was hesitant about getting started – he was always like that – so in the end I proposed to him that the polka should be the work of the two of us. He took me up on that & lo and behold – the polka created a furore in the true sense of the word.’ That is what Johann Strauss remembered about the origin of the polka in a letter he wrote to Simrock, his publisher, on 1 April 1892.
On 1 June 1869 OS (= 13 June NS) Jetty Strauss, who had also travelled to Pavlovsk, informed Josef’s wife Caroline in Vienna, ‘Pepi & Jean are now writing a polka together – that will again be something new.’ The autograph manuscript of the joint composition has been lost, and which parts were the work of which brother cannot be determined from the extant sources.
The first performance was given at Pavlovsk near St Petersburg at a musical evening held on 12 June OS (= 24 June NS). The enthusiasm of the Russian audience is clear from the fact that Johann was called back six times and the polka had to be repeated twice.
The first performance in Vienna was given in the Sofiensaal with Johann conducting on 14 November 1869, during a promenade concert given by the three Strauss brothers. It was the first appearance by Johann and Josef after their return from St Petersburg. The orchestration of the original version is documented in the Fremden-Blatt newspaper on 13 November, where it was announced that it would be ‘performed just by a quartet’. Seven days later Zeitgeist, another newspaper, reported that the polka had been ‘performed with precision by the quartet’. However, the Pizzicato Polka was also published in a version for large orchestra, with a new setting for the strings and with the winds not only playing in the opening tutti chord but also being included in the orchestration throughout.
Johann & Josef Strauss: Pizzicato Polka © by WienBibliothek im Rathaus (2019)
Tuesday, 01. May 201811.00 o' clock Vienna ⁄ Musikverein ⁄ The Große Musikvereinssaal
Spring concert
Alfred Eschwé conductor
Program Johann Strauss II : Overture to the operetta "The Gypsy Baron" Johann Strauss II : By the Moldau / Polka française op. 366 Johann Strauss II : Let's dance! / Quick polka op. 436 Johann Strauss II : Viennese Bonbons / Waltz op. 307 Johann Strauss II : Fata Morgana / Polka mazurka op. 330 Josef Strauss : On Holiday Travels! / Quick polka op. 133 Johann Strauss II : The Publicists / Waltz op. 321 Break Johann Strauss II : Overture to «A Night in Venice» Johann Strauss II : Fairy tales from the Orient / Waltz op. 444 Johann & Josef Strauss : Pizzicato Polka Joseph Lanner : Tarantel-Galopp op. 125 Johann Strauss II : Czárdás from "Die Fledermaus" Hans Christian Lumbye : Champagne Galop op. 14 Johann Strauss II : Emperor Waltz op. 437 Encore Johann Strauss II : Thunder and Lightning / Quick polka op. 324 Johann Strauss I : Radetzky March op. 228
Jubiläum Am 2. Jänner 1983 stand Alfred Eschwé zum ersten Mal am Pult des Wiener Johann Strauss Orchesters. Wir gratulieren Maestro Eschwé ganz herzlich und freuen uns auf die nächsten 35 Jahre!
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