January 1 is the day that every year the Vienna New Concert is held in the Golden hall of the Musikverein by the Wiener Philharmoniker. I always watch this beautiful program, but sometimes a thought comes into my head: why do they play only Johann Strauss plus a few family members of that musical dynasty? Aren't there any famous contemporaries who wrote light classical music as well? Occasionally, a few of these do make it into the program of the Musikverein, but the concerts are really very much of one flavor. So I wondered what a concert with no Strauss but only contemporaries would that look like? Below is an attempt at compiling such a concert.
[Ball in the Hofburg: Guests are dancing the Viennese waltz,
by Wilhelm Gause, 1900]
Hans Christian Lumbye - Champagne (Champaign) Galop
Hans Christian Lumbye (1810-1874) was a Danish composer of waltzes, polkas, mazurkas and galops, who composed in the style of Strauss and earned the nickname "The Strauss of the North." He is in fact one of the most interesting composers among Strauss' contemporaries. From 1843 to 1872, he served as the music director and in-house composer for Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen and his music was immensely popular. Even more than Strauss did, Lumbye often employed extra-musical elements or ideas in his light compositions. The Champagne Galop, for example, begins with the "pop" of a champagne cork, and I have selected that as it is suitable to begin with a toast to the New Year!
Youtube
Oscar Fetrás - Mondnacht auf der Alster (Moon Night on the Alster, waltz) Op. 60
Oscar Fetrás (1854-1931) was a German composer of popular dance music, military marches, piano pieces and arrangements with over 200 compositions to his name. Born in Hamburg, he became widely regarded as being on the same level as the revered Viennese waltz king on whom he modeled his own composing. He rose to the position of conductor of the Uhlenhorster Fährhaus which was the most famous restaurant with ballrooms in Hamburg. His best known work was his waltz "Mondnacht auf der Alster", which we select here.
Youtube
Richard Eilenberg - Petersburger Schlittenfahrt (Petersburg Sleigh Ride), Galop op. 57
The German composer Richard Eilenberg (1848 - 1927) wrote marches and dances for orchestra, harmony and military music; he also composed operettas and a ballet. After working as music director and conductor in Stettin, in 1889 he settled in Berlin as freelance composer. He was famous for his marches, but also for salon-style pieces as The Petersburg Sleigh Ride and The Mill In The Black Forest. I include The Petersburg Sleigh Ride which is great fun, and fits the season.
Youtube
Alphons Czibulka - Liebestraum nach dem Balle, Intermezzo Op.356 (Love's Dream After the Ball)
Born in present-day Slovakia, Alphons Czibulka (1842 – 1894) was an Austro-Hungarian military bandmaster, composer, pianist, and conductor. After working as a military band conductor in Prague, he settled as operetta composer in Vienna. Czibulka wrote over 300 works, especially Viennese-style dance music and marches. Of his stage works, his greatest successes were the operettas Pfingsten in Florenz (1884) and Der Glücksritter (1887). A substantial amount of his music is preserved in the music collection of the Vienna City Library.
Youtube
Julius Fučik - Winter Storms, Waltz Op.184
Born in Prague, Julius Fučík (1872-1916) is the most famous of the Czech light music composers. He studied under Anton Dvorak and became a prolific composer, with over 400 marches, polkas, and waltzes to his name. As most of his work was for military bands, he is sometimes known as the "Bohemian Sousa". His worldwide reputation rests primarily on two works: "The Florentiner March" and the "Entrance of the Gladiators." Here I include his waltz "Winter Storms" in which we can hear a distinctive use of Czech musical idioms.
Youtube
Karel Komzák, jr. - Ouverture to Edelweiss
Karel Komzák (1850–1905) was born in Prague to a bandmaster and composer of the same name (to confuse things, his own son was also called Karel). Like his father, he became a bandmaster who was famous throughout the Austrian empire. He was one of the leading military composers but also laid much stress on the string instruments. His most famous work is the waltz Bad'ner Mad'ln, but he also wrote many other magnificent pieces. He wrote one operetta, Edelweiss, of which I here select the overture.
Youtube
Josef Gung'l - Träume auf dem Ozean, Walzer, op. 80 (Dreams on the Ocean)
The Gung'ls were an Austro-Hungarian family of musicians and bandmasters. Josef was a friend of Johann Strauss Sr. He was bandmaster of several military regiments and also formed his own orchestra, with which he undertook many concert tours through Europe and also to America. The waltz I introduce here was written on board the ship which took him to New York in 1848.
Youtube
Philipp Fahrbach, sr. - Lokomotiv-Galopp, op. 31
Philipp Fahrbach (1815-1885) was a student of Joseph Lanner and Johann Strauss (father). At the age of 17 he was playing in the Strauss band. In 1835 he founded his own chapel and was head of the court ball from 1838 to 1856. He then worked from 1841 to 1846 as a military bandmaster with Infantry Regiment No. 4 "Hoch- und Deutschmeister". Then Fahrbach founded another band of his own, with which he went on a trip abroad to Berlin in 1849. From 1856 to 1865 he was military bandmaster in Infantry Regiment No. 14, after which he directed a third civil band. Fahrbach wrote 700 compositions, including two operas. He composed waltzes, potpourris, marches and church music and made great contributions to military music, in which he was one of the first to perform with strings. The Locomotiv-Galopp was published in 1838 and was probably inspired by the Florisdorf-Wagram railway.
Youtube
Béla Kéler - "Am schönen Rhein gedenk`ich dein!" Op 83 ("I think about you at the beautiful Rhine, waltz)
Béla
Kéler (1820-1882) was a Hungarian composer and conductor, who was
active in Hungary, Austria and Germany. After studying law and
agriculture, Keler was a student of Simon Sechter, Anton Bruckner's
teacher. He became a violinist at the Theater an der Wien and worked as a
conductor in Berlin from 1854 to 1856. He was Kapellmeister of the 10th
Infantry Regiment in Galicia for seven years before he settled in
Wiesbaden as music director. Béla Kéler is now an almost forgotten
composer. He composed numerous marches and dances. His waltz Am schönen
Rhein has remained popular.
Youtube
Josef Hellmesberger Jr. - Auf Wiener Art (In Viennese Style), Polka-française
Josef "Pepi" Hellmesberger Jr. (1855 - 1907) was an Austrian composer,
violinist and conductor, the second generation from a musical family. He
held significant musical positions in Vienna, such as conductor at the
Carl Theater and of the Vienna Philharmonic. He is also one of the few
non-Strauss composers sometimes included in the Vienna New Year
concerts. He also wrote operettas and more serious music. I include one
of his polkas, a fresh and bright piece of music.
Youtube
Joseph Lanner - Hofball-Tänze - Walzer, Op. 161
Joseph Lanner (1801–1843) is known as one of the earliest Viennese composers to reform the waltz from a simple peasant dance to something that even the highest society could enjoy. In fact, he was just as famous as his friend and musical rival Johann Strauss I, who was better known outside of Austria in their day because of his concert tours abroad. Among Lanner's more popular works are the "Pesther-Walzer", Op. 93, "Hofballtänze Walzer", Op. 161, "Die Werber" Waltz, Op. 103, "Die Romantiker" Waltz, Op. 167, and "Die Schönbrunner" Walzer, Op. 200. Some of these were the most famous viennese waltzes before "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss II was composed in the mid-1860s.
Youtube
Carl Michael Ziehrer - Ballfieber Polka francaise, Op 406
Carl Michael Ziehrer (1843–1922) was one of the fiercest rivals of the Strauss family, most notably Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss. His rich musical heritage may not be comparable to the Strausses, who dominated for well over a century, but he was more prolific, having composed over 600 waltzes, polkas and marches, which are still performed today. Some of his works are even more Viennese in nature than that of the Strausses. His works are vigorous and forceful, with cheerful melodies written even near the end of the Habsburg dynasty.
Youtube
Siegfried Translateur - Wiener Praterleben (Waltz)
Salo Siegfried Translateur (1875–1944) was a German conductor and composer of waltzes, marches, and other light dance music. Today he is most famous for his Wiener Praterleben waltz, which became popular as Sportpalastwalzer in 1920s Berlin. Translateur's entertainment music was very popular in Germany, his orchestra played on international tours and even in the presence of Emperor Wilhelm II. After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Translateur, having been deemed a "half-Jew" by the Nuremberg Laws, was barred from the Reich Music Chamber which meant a professional ban. Translateur, along with his wife, was deported from Berlin to the Theresienstadt concentration camp on April 19, 1943. He died there on March 1, 1944, at the age of sixty-eight.
Youtube
Franz Lehar- "Gold und Silber",Walzer (Springtime In Vienna 98)
Franz Lehár (1870–1948) was an Austro-Hungarian composer. He was born in the then Hungarian Komárom (now Komárno in Slovakia) as the eldest son of an orchestra leader in the army. He studied violin and composition but was told by Antonín Dvořák that he had better leave his violin and concentrate on writing music. Lehár has devoted himself almost exclusively to operetta. Of his approximately thirty operettas in the Viennese tradition, Die lustige Witwe (1905), Der Graf von Luxemburg (1909) and Das Land des Lächelns are the best known.
Youtube
Joseph Labitzky - Herzpinkerl Polka Op 249
Joseph Labitzky
(1802–1881) was a Bohemian composer, violinist, and conductor. Labitzky
joined a traveling orchestra at age 14, and in 1820 took a position in
an orchestra in Marienbad. In 1823-24 he was in Munich, and following
this he toured Germany as a concert violinist. He put together his own
orchestra in 1825, touring Vienna and Warsaw. He took a conducting
position in Karlsbad in 1835, and his dance pieces became quite popular
throughout Europe. Labitzky composed 300 dance pieces.
Youtube
Émile Waldteufel - Amour et Printemps (Waltz)
Émile Waldteufel
(1837-1915) was a French musician and composer. Émile Waldteufel
studied at the Paris Conservatory. For a while he worked in a piano
factory. In 1865 he became chamber pianist for the Empress Eugenie, and
then Napoléon III's court ball director. He conducted the Paris Opera
Balls and performed frequently with his father's orchestra. Waldteufel's
best-known work is the ice-skater waltz (Les Patineurs), op. 183. Émile
Waldteufel's Viennese waltzes are based on Johann Strauss (son). He
composed over 250 dances, especially waltzes.
Youtube
Oscar Straus: Concert Waltz from "A Waltz Dream"
Oscar Straus (1870-1954) dropped the second "s" at the end of his name to make clear that (like Richard Strauss) he was no family of the Johann Strauss clan. He was born into a prosperous Jewish family in Vienna and studied in Berlin under Max Bruch. Back in Vienna he began writing operettas and became a serious rival to Franz Lehár. In 1939 he fled to Paris, and then to Hollywood, but after the war he returned to Europe. Besides operettas, he also wrote film scores and about 500 cabaret songs. Among his 40 works for the stage, the most famous was Ein Walzertraum (A Waltz Dream) from 1907. The concert waltz I have selected above is a potpourri of melodies from this operetta. Oscar Straus also is known for the nostalgic music he wrote for the film La Ronde by Max Ophuls.
Youtube
Paul Lincke: March "Berliner Luft" ("Berlin Air")
The German composer and theater director Paul Lincke (1866-1946) was self taught. He is considered the "father" of the Berlin operetta and holds the same significance for Berlin as does Johann Strauss for Vienna and Jacques Offenbach for Paris. Well-known compositions include "Berliner Luft" ("Berlin Air"), the unofficial anthem of Berlin, from his operetta Frau Luna; and "The Glow-Worm", from his operetta Lysistrata. I include Berliner Luft which is often used as an encore by the Berliner Philharmoniker and which is just such a smash hit as the Radetzky March played to end the Vienna New Year concerts.
Youtube