King of Waltz: The Story of Johann Strauss

Author: Johann Strauss: The Life of an Emperor, by Marcel Prawy
Translator: Pan Haifeng
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Publication Date: 2003-09-01
Features: Only the absolute original power of musical genius remains intact. Johann Strauss's music is the music of the rise and fall of an empire. The surgeon Theodore Billroth wrote in 1871, "We dive headfirst into the sand of pleasure with Strauss." Strauss's music gave his time a superficial brilliance, but also participated in creating the bellicose atmosphere of the era. In The Gypsy Baron, there is the character of the Hungarians, as expected, they "can change the color of our earth," "death or victory" (not knowing for whom they die). Today, how do we view polkas like The Joy of the Camp, March Forward, and The Soldier's Play? Games have become reality. In 1881, Strauss's The Happy War, staged on the Vienna theater stage, was a rehearsal for real war. As Ernst Decsey pointed out, Strauss played music for the wedding banquet of Austria and death. "Enjoy yourselves to the fullest!" But for the world, Strauss still represents the symbol of joy on the crown of the waltz with thousands of dazzling gems. I listen to Johann Strauss's music as I listen to Offenbach's music, feeling that they are dancing on a volcano and seeing the lightning of the impending tragedy. Among the two, the Viennese is greater. Offenbach is the signal of 1870. Johann Strauss is the signal of 1914. The elder Strauss held spring parties here, in 1847 he held a grand outdoor ball for the children's hospital, and in 1848, "held an imperial parliamentary ball for the attending imperial parliamentarians in the entire people's park." Before the Viennese premieres of Wagner's operas Tannh?user, Der fliegende Holl?nder, and Lohengrin, Johann Strauss Jr. had conducted excerpts from them here. Joseph Strauss conducted excerpts from Tristan und Isolde in 1860. In addition, you can enjoy the best Italian ice cream in Vienna at the Corti café. The Strauss family's concerts often ended with fireworks. This so-called "fun fireworks" always made Viennese delighted. For about a hundred years, the colorful fireworks art works were monopolized by four generations of the Strauss family. Before 1876, Strauss fireworks parties were held four times a year in Sch?nau. The fireworks party for the kings and nobles attending the Vienna Congress became a topic of discussion all over Europe. Karl Schwindl was one of the most prominent managers in Vienna's entertainment industry. Originally a waiter in Karlsruhe, he later became the "master of entertainment" in the capital, Vienna. In 1835, he bought part of the Arnstein Park in Rudolfsheim, located on the upper Mariahilfer Stra?e, not far from the current technical museum. He built the Schwindl Theater there. There was a real theater (it only opened after other Viennese theaters closed at night!), an Eros Hall, a flower hall, a concert hall, and a beer hall. The beer hall had a fan-shaped orchestra pit one floor higher than the main hall. In 1855, when the "various entertainment exhibitions" opened, Johann Strauss conducted there. However, what was particularly popular was Schwindl's "beggar ball," where the wealthiest people in Vienna disguised themselves as beggars and danced and drank all night. Schwindl's other independent entertainment venue was the "New World" in Hietzing. It was located at the intersection of Rheinzee and Hietzing, forming a triangular area, and was a product of the romantic summer nights of Vienna: people came to this entertainment city mainly because the dance floor was outdoors. There, natural tulips shone in contrast with the tulip-shaped glass lamps lit by gas at night, creating a mystical effect. At both ends of the dance floor were band pavilions, where the three Strauss brothers had all played. The dance floor was in the center of an English-style garden, with a glass mosaic surface, and people could admire the tea plants in the greenhouses during the breaks in dancing. Another attractive feature of Schwindl's New World was the wooden building built in the style of Moorish architecture, known as the Red Palace, where concerts or theatrical performances were held. The carefully designed lighting often made the dance floor blend with the Red Palace. At the annual Annaball, 5,000 to 6,000 people visited the Grand World. It had become a tradition for the upper class of Vienna to take the confirmed baptsed there. Schwindl was an "entertainment expert" who knew what to offer the audience. One day, a wire was stretched across the grand hall of the New World, and Brunton, who had crossed Niagara Falls on a wire without a safety net in 1859, appeared. But Johann Strauss was the king of this night entertainment exchange. When he conducted and felt that his reckless customers danced, drank, laughed, loved, forgot their worries, and spent a lot of money for it, and when he clearly supervised the income and expenses of these unusual speculators at the ball, he himself was determined to make a big splash in this industry. Strauss composed everywhere, all the time. His wise wife Adele placed notes and British pencils in many corners of the house and always put paper and pencils in his jacket and pockets, thus saving some of his precious musical ideas and the manuscripts he expected for posterity. Strauss celebrated nature in many of his works: The Story of the Vienna Woods, In the Beautiful Blue Danube, In the Place of Lemon Blossoms, and The Northern Sea—yet it is very questionable whether he ever saw the northern sea. He made long tour performances to Paris, Russia, Germany, England, Italy, and the United States, but he never had a real sense of any of these countries. Except for such mediocre memories as the cost of a haircut, we hardly see him comment on the characteristics of any of these countries. Strauss had expressive eyes under his thick eyebrows and was a "beauty," knowing that pleasing others was part of his profession. Like his father, he always dressed impeccably, and his attire was a wonderful combination of old Vienna and the latest fashion. We know that he wore a well-fitting checked suit, a beige double-breasted coat, and light-colored leather shoes, with a rare diamond decoration on his silk tie, his nervous fingers wearing rings studded with precious gems, and a hat adorned with feathers or flowers. This attire was out of professional duty, like soldiers in their uniforms. His only hobby was painting, but he did not really pursue it. He was good at painting, and in the 1870s, he spent several months studying under the landscape painter Anton Hlavá?ek. As payment, he bought a painting from the painter! His caricatures of his acquaintances were very successful. At social events, with his keen observation, he could sketch a portrait with just a few strokes. Strangely enough, Johann Strauss was considered a person who could not dance. Did he really not dance? He had a slight understanding of stage dance design. During the rehearsals of The Happy War, he danced with Miss Fénal and taught her the steps she wanted to learn. During the rehearsals of Simplicius, he also taught Otilie Kolín the dance. In the people, Johann Strauss was affectionately called "Sani," and he often signed his letters to friends as "Yan." In reality, he had no friends, only many good acquaintances. Except for his mother, he was not really close to any other members of his family. He sometimes visited his two younger sisters. What bound him with his two younger brothers was the commercial interest in the entertainment music business. He fully understood Joseph's high talent, but when Joseph's success in Russia was much smaller than his and no one wanted to welcome Joseph in London, he unconsciously revealed a sense of pride in his letters to others. His relationship with Edward remained cold. He could not stand that his younger brother was seen by the audience as the "more lovable person" and believed that "handsome Edward" was popular for reasons other than music. The Johann Strauss who signed himself "Knight of the Order of the Persian Sun and the Lion" on his business cards mocked Edward's title of "Conductor of the Brazilian Court Orchestra." In the years when his operettas were not popular, he had to beg his younger brother Edward, the head of the Strauss Orchestra, to include his new works in the orchestra's program, and at this time, how great a humiliation he must have felt! Johann Strauss's aloofness in relationships was because he always felt exploited. In his letters, he repeatedly called his publishers Haslinger and Simrock deceivers and rascals. In contrast, he had a close relationship with animals. In the courtyard of his palace-style residence on Hedgehog Street, there was a stable where he kept two beautiful black horses, which he brought back to Vienna in 1886 as a reward for his concerts in Russia. Strauss loved his snow rescue dog, Coro. After the dog died, he raised another badger dog, which was still with him when he died. He proudly showed his guests the brown parrot, Jacq, from whom one could, with some imagination, hear the melody from the beginning of the Danube Waltz in its calls. The southern railway from Vienna to Semmering passes through Sch?nau near Leobersdorf, where Eduard Strauss had a luxurious villa. On the balcony of the villa, he kept two peacocks with feathers of light blue and pale green. The aging composer spent many summer days here. Among all the places he lived, he might have felt the most comfortable here. In the solitude of the countryside, he could find himself. He loved the rows of chestnut trees and decorated the paths in the garden with geraniums and fuchsias with the pride of a childlike owner. Once, he brought back many boxes full of colorful pebbles, flint, and shells from the northern coast, and he placed these pebbles and shells beside the flower beds and vegetable beds, laying them out in various patterns on the ground. He was quite pleased with these patterns. In Sch?nau, he became a vegetable gardener, growing strawberries, lettuce, and asparagus. Here, he also became a chef; "I peeled the peas, trimmed the bean ends, and put the gooseberry leaves in the pot to cook" and he could wear his favorite purple silk pajamas all day. Johann Strauss's spiritual life hid a secret. He feared nature. Brahms said that in 1872, when Strauss, at the age of 47, climbed a small hill near Baden-Baden to visit Brahms, he asked two people to help him. He feared traveling. He always pulled down the curtains when taking the train. When the train passed through tunnels and bridges, he lay flat on his seat. When the train climbed high or walked on a viaduct, he drank champagne.