In 1870 the Society of the Friends of Music moved into its new home, the Musikverein concert hall opposite the Karlskirche, the baroque church of St Charles Borromeo. From its opening, the Strauss brothers succeeded in establishing the hall as the venue for a season of concerts by the Strauss Orchestra. This was an extremely valuable engagement, as at that time the civilian orchestras providing the music for dances and entertainment were coming under increasing pressure from military bands financed by the state, and the dancing fever of the pre-1848 Biedermeier period had generally sunk to a much more modest level. The Musikverein became, as it were, the stronghold of the Strauss Orchestra. The year 1870 also saw the death of Josef, and, with Johann devoting himself to operetta, Eduard was now in sole charge of the orchestra and hence also of the concerts in the Musikverein. These performances took place regularly on Sunday afternoon and offered a mixture of ‘classical’ and light music. This meant that they attracted sections of the public who might otherwise not have been among the visitors to the concert hall. It was at one of these concerts, on 7 November 1886, that Eduard gave the first performance of his quick polka op. 251, Who’ll Join the Dance? A special feature of this concert was that the net profit went to Eduard himself, and to support him Johann appeared to conduct two of the new dances he had brought back with him from his journey to Russia: the Adele Waltz, op. 424, and the polka mazurka By the Volga, op. 425. It was specifically pointed out that this appearance by the 'Waltz King' was indeed something special, ‘Every year Johann Strauss is to be found conducting in the concert hall only at this concert.’ In February 1887 the piano arrangement and the orchestral parts were published for Wer tanzt mit?
Monday, 26. October 202011.00 o' clock Vienna ⁄ Musikverein ⁄ The Große Musikvereinssaal
Fall Concert at Vienna Musikverein
Johannes Wildner conductor
Program Johann Strauss II : Overture to the operetta «Carnival in Rome» Josef Strauss : Heart of Woman / Polka mazurka op. 166 Josef Strauss : Jucker-Polka op. 27 Josef Strauss : Perlen der Liebe / Concert-Walzer op. 39 Johann Strauss II : Express Polka / Polka schnell op. 311 Josef Strauss : Transactions / Waltz op. 184 Johann Strauss II : Anna Polka op. 117 Eduard Strauss I : Who’ll Join the Dance? / Quick polka op. 251 Franz Lehár : Ball sirens / Waltz from «The Merry Widow»
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