🎻 Johann Strauss II: Neues Leben/Polka française op.278 | Musikverein | #NYC2024 | #NewYearsConcert

Live from the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein. Masterfully interpreted by the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra! Conducted by Alfred Eschwé.

Synopsis:
On November 20, 1863, Johann Strauss performed a new polka française entitled "New Life" at the traditional "Katharinen-Redoute" of the Viennese visual artists' concert in the Imperial and Royal Redoutensaal of the Vienna Hofburg. When the work was later published by Carl Haslinger, the title page bore the dedication: "To His Highness, the reigning Duke Ernst of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha." But by this time, the polka had already undergone several renamings. At the first performance at the farewell concert of music director Johann Strauss on September 15/27, 1853, in Pavlovsk near St. Petersburg, the program titled "Proshchanie" (= farewell, separation) in Cyrillic script. The polka was also published under this name by the St. Petersburg publisher Büttner. The musician Zimmermann's notes read "Addio," and the engraver's copy read "Adieu." But already during his stay in Prague on his return journey from Russia, on October 13, Strauss wrote a few bars of the work on an album page and the final title, "New Life." When the composer decided on this title (and probably also on the dedication of the work to Duke Ernst II) is still unclear, as not all of the stops on this journey have yet been identified. What is certain, however, is that Johann Strauss asked his publisher Carl Haslinger to compile the piano editions of all the works published by his company. These were presented to Duke Ernst II, along with Johann Strauss's dedication, in the Palais Coburg in Vienna. Furthermore, Johann Strauss had his copyist Georg Kraus type out the score and sent this version to Coburg in a precious binding with a gold cover. (Both this copy and the collection of Haslinger editions are in the Coburg State Library.) Johann Strauss was awarded the "Ernestine House Order" for this.

The polka "Neues Leben" must have arrived in Vienna before Johann Strauss, because when the composer arrived in Vienna on October 21, 1863, he praised the publisher with the words: "The Neues Leben Polka is excellently arranged." Shortly thereafter, however, a rift developed between Johann Strauss and Carl Haslinger, and Haslinger henceforth patronized the young Michael Ziehrer, who called himself Carl Michael Ziehrer in his honor. Johann Strauss could not have even imagined at the time what consequences all these events would have for him. Duke Ernst and Coburg became very important to him and his destiny in 1887 – and at the beginning of this relationship was a work whose title could not have been more fitting for this reason: "Neues Leben"

Text: Prof. Franz Mailer, 1998

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