"Pearls of Love". On the eve of his wedding Josef Strauss presented his bride Caroline Pruckmayer with the score of one of his most beautiful compositions, Perlen der Liebe. It was undoubtedly the most valuable gift that the 26-year-old bride received on the occasion of her marriage to Josef Strauss on 8 June 1857 in the St Johann Parish Church in Leopoldstadt. Josef Strauss was not thinking of his family’s waltz business as he planned his wedding waltz. With this work he wanted to expand the traditional form of Viennese dance music, but without abandoning the basic structure of a waltz. Important to him were both the symphonic development of the score, where his preference for the music of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt is unmistakably expressed, and the suitability of the work for the concerts of the Strauss orchestra, rather than for the ballroom. Josef Strauss therefore gave Perlen der Liebe the then new designation of ‘concert waltz’—thereby proving himself far ahead of his brother Johann. The Fremden-Blatt of 5 June 1857 wrote that “the newly-composed waltz is offered in a wholly original structure in new forms.” The benefit concert in the imperial Volksgarten at which Josef Strauss planned to perform Perlen der Liebe for the first time was announced for 30 June, but had to be delayed until 6 July, probably owing to inclement weather that evening. Johann Strauss respected the fact that his brother Josef was the first composer to expand the waltz form into a concert piece. Thus he presented his brother’s concert waltz to the Russian public as well in his programmes in Pavlovsk, near St Petersburg. From then on Perlen der Liebe never disappeared from the programmes of the Strauss concerts.
Don't forget to subscribe and leave a comment, that would be helpful to improve my channel. Thank you!
Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester
Willy Boskovsky
Comentarios