‘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, 15. April 198621.30 o' clock Mendoza ⁄ Teatro Independencia
Concert in Mendoza 3rd South-America tour
Kurt Woess conductor
Program Johann Strauss II : Ouverture to «Die Fledermaus» Johann Strauss II : Singers Joy / Polka française op. 328 Josef Strauss : Chatterboxes: musical joke / Polka op. 245 Johann Strauss II : Artist’s Life / Waltz op. 316 Johann Strauss II : Egyptian March op. 335 Eduard Strauss I : By Express Post / Quick polka op. 259 Josef Strauss : Watercolours / Waltz op. 258 Break Johann Strauss II : Napoleon March op. 156 Josef Strauss : My Character is Love and Joy / Waltz op. 263 Johann Strauss II : Cuckoo Polka / Polka française op. 336 Johann Strauss II : Light of Heart / Quick polka op. 319 Eduard Strauss I : Clear the Track! / Quick polka op. 45 Johann & Josef Strauss : Pizzicato Polka Johann Strauss II : The Blue Danube / Waltz op. 314 Encore Johann Strauss I : Radetzky March op. 228
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