Immediately after the close of the official 1869 Vienna Carnival calendar, Johann and Josef Strauss began preparations for their joint Russian summer season of concerts in Pavlovsk from 9 May (= 27 April, Russian calendar) until 10 October (= 28 September). But a number of concert engagements had to be fulfilled before their departure, including a journey by the Strauss orchestra under the direction of all three brothers, Johann, Josef and Eduard, to the Hungarian town of Pest on the banks of the Danube. To coincide with the opening of Pest's imposing new Redoutensaal building, the brothers had organised two concerts there on 16 and 17 March. It was at the first of these that Johann conducted his quick polka Éljen a Magyar!, composed especially for the occasion and dedicated "to the Hungarian Nation". From his early days as a composer Johann was as much at home with the music of Hungary as he was with that of his native Vienna, and this exciting work, further enhanced at its première by the participation of the Budapest Men's Choral Association, was triumphantly applauded and had to be repeated several times. The Coda of the work features a fleeting quotation from the Rákóczi March, which Berlioz had earlier utilised in his Damnation of Faust (1846), but which owes its origins to the patriotic Magyar Rákóczi song.
Johann Strauss II. Hail to Hungary! «Eljen A Magyar» / Polka schnell op. 332 © by WJSO-Archive
Saturday, 24. January 198720.30 o' clock Pasadena ⁄ Ambassador Auditorium
Concert in Pasadena 2nd US tour
Kurt Woess conductor
Program Johann Strauss II : Overture to the operetta «Waldmeister» (Woodruff) Johann Strauss II : Anna Polka op. 117 Johann Strauss II : Eljen A Magyar! « Long Live the Magyar!» / Quick polka op. 332 Josef Strauss : Mysterious Powers of Attraction (Dynamiden) / Waltz op. 173 Johann Strauss II : Excursion Train / Quick polka op. 281 Johann Strauss II : Artist’s Life / Waltz op. 316 Break Johann Strauss II : Persian March op. 289 Josef Strauss : Watercolours / Waltz op. 258 Josef Strauss : Without a Care! / Quick polka op. 271 Johann Strauss II : Bandits Galop / Polka schnell op. 378 Johann Strauss II : New Pizzicato Polka, from the Operetta «Fürstin Ninetta» op. 449 Johann Strauss II : The Blue Danube / Waltz op. 314 Encore Johann Strauss I : Radetzky March op. 228
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