Josef Strauss - "Brennende Liebe" Polka-Mazurka, Op. 129 (1862)

Josef Luckhardt Strauss (20 August 1827 – 22 July 1870) was an Austrian composer. He was the brother of Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss. His father wanted him to choose a career in the Austrian Habsburg military. He studied music with Franz Dolleschal and learned to play the violin with Franz Anton Ries.

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Brennende Liebe (Ardent Love), Op. 129 (1862)
Polka-Mazurka

Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Karl Albert Geyer

Josef Strauss composed his Brennende Liebe (Ardent Love) polka mazurka in 1862 while in Pavlovsk, Russia. The work was first performed there on 13 November 1862 (Old Style date) at his first benefit concert in Pavlovsk, where it was initially titled Amorette or Küsse mich (Kiss me) and assigned opus number 122 was well received and appeared frequently in the concert programme during the season.

After returning to Vienna, Strauss presented the piece publicly on 9 November 1862 (New Style date) at the Sperl establishment, where it was first given the title Brennende Liebe (“ardent love”)

Josef Strauss wrote 283 works with opus numbers. He wrote many waltzes, including: Sphären-Klänge (Music of the Spheres), Delirien (Deliriums), Transaktionen (Transactions), Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb' und Lust (My Character is Love and Joy), and Dorfschwalben aus Österreich (Village Swallows from Austria), polkas, most famously the Pizzicato Polka [It] with his brother Johann, quadrilles, and other dance music, and also some marches. The waltz The Mysterious Powers of Magnetism (Dynamiden) with the use of minor keys showed a quality that distinguished his waltzes from those of his more popular elder brother. The polka-mazurka shows influence by J. Strauss II, where he wrote many examples like Die Emancipierte and Die Libelle.

Josef Strauss was sick most of his later life. He was prone to fainting spells and intense headaches. During a tour in 1870, he fell unconscious from the conductor's podium in Warsaw while conducting his 'Musical Potpourri', striking his head. His wife brought him back home to Vienna, to the Hirschenhaus, where he died on 22 July of that year. A final diagnosis cited only decomposed blood. There were rumors that he had been beaten by drunken Russian soldiers after allegedly refusing to perform for them one night. A specific cause of death was not determined, since his widow forbade any autopsy. Originally buried in the St. Marx Cemetery, Strauss was later exhumed and reburied in the Vienna Central Cemetery, alongside his mother Anna.