The Philadelphia Orchestra Bramwell Tovey ConductorTracy Dahl SopranoTravis and Jaimee Tuft DancersJoanna Meller and Slawek Roszak DancersMalachi Osai and Annabella Waszkiewicz Dancers

J. Strauss, Jr. Overture to Die Fledermaus

J. Strauss, Jr. “Mein Herr Marquis,” from Die Fledermaus

Waldteufel “The Skaters’ Waltz,” Op. 183

J. Strauss, Jr. “”Egyptian” March, Op. 335

J. Strauss, Jr. “Voices of Spring” Waltz, Op. 410

J. Strauss, Jr. “Thunder and Lightning” Waltz, Op. 324

Intermission

Lehár “Gold and Silver” Waltz

J. Strauss, Jr. Perpetuum mobile, Op. 257

J. Strauss, Jr., & Josef Strauss “Pizzicato” Polka

J. Strauss, Jr. “Champagne” Polka, Op. 211

Lehár “Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiss,” from Giuditta

J. Strauss, Jr. “On the Beautiful Blue Danube” Waltz, Op. 314

This program runs approximately 1 hour, 45 minutes.

The dancers on tonight’s program appear under the auspices of Dance Affiliates, Randy Swarz, artistic director.

Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 1 PM. Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details.

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Tuesday, December 31, at 7:30

Season 2013-2014

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2 Story Title

The Philadelphia Orchestra

The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the preeminent orchestras in the world, renowned for its distinctive sound, desired for its keen ability to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences, and admired for a legacy of innovation in music-making. The Orchestra is inspiring the future and transforming its rich tradition of achievement, sustaining the highest level of artistic quality, but also challenging and exceeding that level, by creating powerful musical experiences for audiences at home and around the world.

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin triumphantly opened his inaugural season as the eighth artistic leader of the Orchestra in fall 2012. His highly collaborative style, deeply-rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. Yannick has been embraced by the musicians of the Orchestra, audiences, and the

community itself. His concerts of diverse repertoire attract sold-out houses, and he has established a regular forum for connecting with concert-goers through Post-Concert Conversations.

Under Yannick’s leadership the Orchestra returns to recording with a newly-released CD on the Deutsche Grammophon label of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions. In Yannick’s inaugural season the Orchestra has also returned to the radio airwaves, with weekly Sunday afternoon broadcasts on WRTI-FM.

Philadelphia is home and the Orchestra nurtures an important relationship not only with patrons who support the main season at the Kimmel Center but also those who enjoy the Orchestra’s other area performances at the Mann Center, Penn’s Landing, and other venues. The Orchestra is also a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the U.S. Having been the first American orchestra

to perform in China, in 1973 at the request of President Nixon, today The Philadelphia Orchestra boasts a new partnership with the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. The Orchestra annually performs at Carnegie Hall while also enjoying annual residencies in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and at the Bravo! Vail festival.

Musician-led initiatives, including highly-successful Cello and Violin Play-Ins, shine a spotlight on the Orchestra’s musicians, as they spread out from the stage into the community. The Orchestra’s commitment to its education and community partnership initiatives manifests itself in numerous other ways, including concerts for families and students, and eZseatU, a program that allows full-time college students to attend an unlimited number of Orchestra concerts for a $25 annual membership fee. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org.

Jessica Griffin

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Music DirectorYannick Nézet-Séguin triumphantly opened his inaugural season as the eighth music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra in the fall of 2012. His highly collaborative style, deeply-rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. The New York Times has called Yannick “phenomenal,” adding that under his baton “the ensemble … has never sounded better.” In his first season he took the Orchestra to new musical heights. His second builds on that momentum with highlights that include a Philadelphia Commissions Micro-Festival, for which three leading composers have been commissioned to write solo works for three of the Orchestra’s principal players; the next installment in his multi-season focus on requiems with Fauré’s Requiem; and a unique, theatrically-staged presentation of Strauss’s revolutionary opera Salome, a first-ever co-production with Opera Philadelphia.

Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most exciting talents of his generation. Since 2008 he has been music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic, and since 2000 artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain. In addition he becomes the first ever mentor conductor of the Curtis Institute of Music’s conducting fellows program in the fall of 2013. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles, and has conducted critically acclaimed performances at many of the leading opera houses.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Deutsche Grammophon (DG) enjoy a long-term collaboration. Under his leadership the Orchestra returns to recording with a newly-released CD on that label of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions. Yannick continues a fruitful recording relationship with the Rotterdam Philharmonic for DG, BIS, and EMI/Virgin; the London Philharmonic for the LPO label; and the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique.

A native of Montreal, Yannick Nézet-Séguin studied at that city’s Conservatory of Music and continued lessons with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini and with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among Yannick’s honors are an appointment as Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honors; a Royal Philharmonic Society Award; Canada’s National Arts Centre Award; the Prix Denise-Pelletier, the highest distinction for the arts in Quebec, awarded by the Quebec government; and an honorary doctorate by the University of Quebec in Montreal.

To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit www.philorch.org/conductor.

Nigel P

arry/CP

i

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ConductorPianist, composer, and Grammy Award-winning conductor Bramwell Tovey is in his 14th season as music director of the Vancouver Symphony (VSO). As a guest conductor he works with some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony, and the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra. In North America he has made guest appearances with the orchestras of Baltimore, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Montreal, and Toronto. Mr. Tovey made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2008 and most recently performed with the ensemble at Saratoga in 2013 and for the Glorious Sound of Christmas concerts in 2012. He also continues his association with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and as founding host and conductor of the New York Philharmonic’s Summertime Classics series at Avery Fisher Hall. In 2008 both orchestras co-commissioned him to write a new work, Urban Runway, subsequently programmed by a number of orchestras in the U.S. and Canada, including The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Mr. Tovey is an award-winning composer. His Requiem for a Charred Skull won the 2003 JUNO award for Best Classical Composition. His opera The Inventor, written with playwright John Murrell, was commissioned by Calgary Opera and recorded with the original cast, the Vancouver Symphony, and the University of British Columbia Opera. Mr. Tovey wrote the score, conducted the VSO, and performed as solo pianist in Richard Bell’s 2005 movie Eighteen starring Ian McKellen. In 2008, with violinist James Ehnes, Mr. Tovey and the VSO won Grammy and JUNO awards for their recording of the Barber, Korngold, and Walton concertos.

Touring is an important aspect of Mr. Tovey’s artistic leadership with the VSO and in 2013 they embarked on a west coast U.S. tour. Other recent engagements included visits to the Nashville Symphony and the Montreal Symphony, as well as a return to Australia where he has already worked with the symphonies in Perth, Sydney, and Melbourne. Also in 2013 he received an honorary appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada for his outstanding achievements as a conductor and composer, and for his commitment to promoting new Canadian music.

Tyler Boye

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SoloistCanadian coloratura soprano Tracy Dahl last performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra for the New Year’s Eve gala in 1995, which was also her debut. During the 2013-14 season she returns to the Canadian Opera Company as Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Calgary Opera as Mabel in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, and the Vancouver Symphony for Orff’s Carmina burana. She debuted at La Scala in 2006 as Zerbinetta in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and has also performed with the Metropolitan, San Francisco, Houston Grand, and Santa Fe operas, as well as at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

Ms. Dahl’s recent operatic engagements include Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto with the Edmonton and Manitoba operas; her title role debut in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda with Pacific Opera Victoria; the world premieres of Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland and Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; and Madame Mao in John Adams’s Nixon in China with Opera Colorado, Portland Opera, and Vancouver Opera. At the Metropolitan Opera she has sung Adele in Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Florestine in the world premiere of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, and Valencienne in Lehár’s The Merry Widow. She sang Olympia in the San Francisco Opera production of Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann opposite Plácido Domingo, and returned as Oscar in Verdi’s A Masked Ball and the title role in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.

On the concert stage Ms. Dahl has performed Gershwin songs with the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic; Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Monterey Symphony; Britten’s Les Illuminations with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra; a concert with the Melbourne Symphony; and Handel’s Messiah with the San Francisco and Saint Louis symphonies, and with the Vancouver Symphony Proms with Bramwell Tovey. Her discography includes A Disney Spectacular with the Cincinnati Pops (Telarc); Glitter and Be Gay with the Calgary Philharmonic (CBC); A Gilbert and Sullivan Gala with the Winnipeg Symphony (CBC); and Love Walked In, a Gershwin collection with Mr. Tovey on piano (Red Phone Box Company).

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DancersTravis and Jaimee Tuft have gained international success in ballroom dance as the U.S. Rising Start Professional American Smooth Champions, U.S. Theatrical Arts Champions, U.S. Cabaret Vice-Champions, and World Professional American Smooth Finalists. They were also the undefeated two-time U.S. Amateur American Smooth Champions. Mr. Tuft has trained and competed in International style Ballroom and Latin, and American style Rhythm and Smooth. He attended Brigham Young University, where he was a member of its award-winning ballroom formation team. With the Latin team he placed first at the British Open Championships and is a four time U.S. Latin Formation team champion. Ms. Tuft trained with former principal dancers from NYC Ballet and Ballet West. She graduated from Brigham Young University, where she was a member of its acclaimed formation ballroom dance team and placed first at the British Open Championships. The Tufts also performed with the touring show Champions of Dance.

Joanna Meller and Slawek Roszak perform in the Professional American Rhythm Division. They placed first at the Manhattan Dance Championship and were finalists in the Rising Star American Rhythm category. Ms. Meller, originally from Poland, is a Latin ballroom dancer trained in all International and American styles. She has competed at the Manhattan Dance Championship, the Empire Dance Championship, the Embassy Ball, the United States Dance Championship, and the Ohio Star Ball, among others. She previously taught with Arthur Murray, where she became a top instructor during the New York Dance Festival. Mr. Roszak, originally from Poznan, Poland, was the Polish National Salsa Champion and competed throughout Europe in the International Latin and Ballroom styles. He was featured on So You Think You Can Dance in Poland. He was a finalist in the 2011 Professional Rising Star Rhythm Championship at the San Francisco Open and performed on the Univision TV show Sabado Gigante.

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DancersMalachi Osai, 20, and Annabella Waszkiewicz, 16, began their dance partnership in May 2013 with a shared passion for ballroom dancing. Mr. Osai has studied dance for seven years, and placed in national competitive events in ballroom dancing. He went on tour during his senior year in high school to participate in a cultural exchange in China. Ms. Waszkiewicz has been dancing since she was three years old. She received the title of USA Dance National Standard champion, among others, and also represented the U.S. on the USA Dance World Team at the World Championships in Blackpool, England.

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Johann Strauss, Jr. (1825-99): Overture and “Mein Herr Marquis,” from Die Fledermaus

As the fashion for the waltz swept across Europe in the early decades of the 19th century, it soon became clear that the best waltzes were coming from Vienna, from the pens of Joseph Lanner and Johann Strauss. Upon Lanner’s death in 1843, Strauss inherited sole possession of the title of “Waltz King,” directing his own orchestra in concerts that were unfailingly popular. But his reign was to be short-lived. Strauss’s oldest son, Johann Strauss Jr., had ignored his father’s advice to pursue a career in banking, and on October 15, 1844, gathered together a small orchestra of 15 players to present a concert of works by his father along with new dances he had composed himself.

Many in Vienna thought Johann Jr. was simply trying to cash in on his father’s popularity, but his motivations were more pure than that. Strauss Sr. had abandoned his family in 1842, and his oldest son was obliged to present the concert to help supplement the dwindling allowance his father had left the family. Still, anticipation created by the announcement of a concert by the younger Strauss spread like wildfire through Viennese society. Strauss Sr. even hired a group of detractors to disrupt his son’s concert, afraid, perhaps, of having to share success. But by the first encore, those partisans were also standing and cheering along with the rest of the crowd. Johann Strauss Jr.’s Op. 1, the “Sinngedichte” (Epigrams) Waltz, was encored 19 times that night, and a new Waltz King was crowned. The press was unanimous in its praise. One enthusiastic reviewer wrote, “Goodnight, Lanner! Good evening, Father Strauss! Good morning to you, Strauss junior.”

Though Johann Strauss Jr. composed 18 operettas and music theater pieces, only two have remained firmly in the performing repertoire, Die Fledermaus (The Bat), and Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron). The earlier of these works, Die Fledermaus, was written in the space of just six weeks during the early spring of 1874. Strauss’s libretto was by Carl Haffner and Richard Genée, based on a French play called Le Réveillon by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.

Act II of Die Fledermaus takes place at a grand Viennese ball. Adele, a maid to Herr Eisenstein and his wife, Rosalinde, poses as an actress named Olga and sneaks into the ball, where her master and mistress also happen to be in attendance. Adele has secretly borrowed one of Rosalinda’s gowns, and when Eisenstein recognizes her (and the gown) and comments that she looks very much like his maid, she laughingly dismisses his suggestion in the aria “Mein Herr Marquis” (often referred to as “Adele’s Laughing Song”). After all, he is also attending the ball in disguise and so cannot reveal his true identity either.

—Luke Howard

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“Mein Herr Marquis”

Mein Herr Marquis, ein Mann wie Siesollt’ besser das verstehn,darum rate ich, ja genauer sichdie Leute anzusehn!Die Hand ist doch wohl gar so fein, hahaha,dies Füsschen so zierlich und klein, hahaha,die Sprache, die ich führe,die Taille, die Tournüre,dergleichen finden Siebei einer Zofe nie!Gestehen müssen sie fürwahr,sehr komisch dieser Irrtum war!Ja, sehr komisch, hahaha,ist die Sache, hahaha,drum verzeihn Sie, hahaha,wenn ich lache, hahahah!

Sehr komisch, Herr Marquis, sind Sie!

Mit dem Profil im griech’schen Stilbeschenkte mich Natur;wenn nicht dies Gesicht schon genügend

spricht,so sehn Sie die Figur!Schaun durch die Lorgnette

Sie dann, ah,sich diese Toilette nur an, ah.Mir scheinet wohl, die Liebemacht Ihre augen trübe,der schönen Zofe Bildhat ganz Ihr Herz erfüllt!Nun sehen Sie sie überall,sehr komisch ist fürwahr der Fall!Ja, sehr komisch, hahaha,ist die Sache, hahaha,drum verzeihn Sie, hahaha,wenn ich lache, hahaha!

“My Dear Marquis”

My dear marquis, a man like youshould know better,so I advise you to take a closerlook at people!Surely my hand is so very graceful, ha ha ha,this foot is so small and dainty, ha ha ha,the way I speak,my waist, my bustle,you won’t find theseon a maidservant!You really must admit,it was a very funny mistake!Yes, how funny, ha ha ha,this thing is, ha ha ha,so forgive me, ha ha ha,if I laugh, ha ha ha!

How funny you are, marquis!

My Grecian profilewas a gift of nature;if this face is not proof

enough,see my figure!Then just have a look through your

lorgnette, aha,at this outfit, aha.I really think lovehas clouded your vision,the image of your beautiful maidservanthas quite filled your heart!Now you see her everywhere,truly it is a very funny business!Yes, how funny, ha ha ha,this thing is, ha ha ha,so forgive me, ha ha ha,if I laugh, ha ha ha!

English translation by Darrin T. Britting

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Émile Waldteufel was as famous in his day as Johann Strauss Jr., and in fact came to be known as the Parisian Strauss. He was born in Strasbourg and grew up in a musical family—his father and brother were violinists and dance composers and his mother was a pianist. The family moved to Paris in 1842 where his father’s dance orchestra gained some renown. Waldteufel studied piano with his mother and Joseph Heyberger, and in 1853 he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory. He was appointed court pianist to Napoleon III in 1865 but it was a meeting with the future King Edward VII in 1874 that launched his compositional career beyond France with his waltz “Manolo.” Waldteufel’s “Skaters’ Waltz” was composed in 1882, inspired by the rink at the Bois de Boulogne in Paris.

—Darrin T. Britting

Émile Waldteufel (1837-1915): “The Skaters’ Waltz”

Johann Strauss, Jr.: “Egyptian” March

After the waltz and the polka, the march was the form most frequently employed by members of the Strauss composing dynasty. The elder Johann Strauss’s most enduring piece is, in fact, not a waltz at all, but his “Radetzky” March. Johann Jr., whose career in music was initially forbidden by Papa, wrote fewer marches than the old man, most likely because he found the form less open to expansion than that of the waltz. This march by Johann the younger dates from 1870, and is a typical caricature of Oriental style, clothed in Western harmonies. It was his next-to-last march, and is full of the pomp and color befitting a composer on the verge of writing his first operetta.

—Kenneth LaFave

Johann Strauss, Jr.: “Voices of Spring” Waltz

“Voices of Spring” was composed as a renewal of sorts for Johann Strauss Jr. In 1883 he suffered a number of failures in the theater, and a return to his original love, the waltz, served as a tonic to bring him back to artistic sanity. Two years later, he composed one of his greatest theatrical triumphs, The Gypsy Baron.

It’s tempting to think of waltzes all sounding the same, given their family resemblance of 3/4 meter. But consider “Voices of Spring” in contrast to Strauss’s most famous waltz, “On the Beautiful Blue Danube.” Where the “Danube” flows in stately D major, its melody outlining chords in that key, “Voices of Spring” commences with two and one-third bars of crookedly ascending eighth notes spanning virtually the entire 12 notes possible in Western music. In fact the opening phrase contains 11 of those 12, set nearly in defiance of the insistent B-flat major of the harmony. Later strains of the waltz will settle down somewhat, but at the coda, the sweeping chromatic feeling will return.

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“Frühlingsstimmen”

Die Lerche in blaue Höh’ entschwebt,der Tauwind weht so lau;sein wonniger milder Hauch belebtund küsst das Feld, die Au.

Der Frühling in holder Pracht erwacht,ah, alle Pein zu End’ mag sein,alles Leid, entfloh’n ist es weit!

Schmerz wird milder, frohe Bilder,Glaub’ an Glück kehrt zurück;Sonnenschein, ah dringt nun ein,ah alles lacht, ach erwacht!

Die Lerche etc.

Da strömt auch der Liederquell,der zu lang schon schien zu schweigen;klingen hört dort wider rein und hellsüsse Stimmen aus den Zweigen!

Leis’ lässt die Nachtigall schon die ersten Tönen hören,um die Kön’gin nicht zu stören,schweigt, ihr Sänger all!

Voller schon klingt bald ihr süsser Ton.Ach, ja bald, ah ja bald!O Sang der Nachtigall,holder Klang, ah ja!

Liebe durchglüht, ah, tönet das Lied, ah,und der Laut, süss und traut,scheint auch Klagen zu tragen, ah,wiegt das Herz in süsse Träumerein, leise ein!

Kaum will entschwinden die Nacht,Lerchensang frisch erwacht, ah.

“Voices of Spring”

The skylark soars in the blue sky,the dewy wind blows so mild;its delightful, soft breeze enlivensand kisses the field and the pasture.

The spring awakens in lovely splendor,ah, all suffering ends,all grief runs far away!

Sorrow becomes milder, joyful pictures,we believe in happiness again;sunshine, ah enter now at once,ah, everything smiles, oh awaken!

The skylark etc.

The source of songs also flows there,it was silent for so long;hear again the clear and bright sounds,the sweet voices from the trees!

Softly the nightingale sings his first notes,so as not to disturb the queen,be silent all you singers!

Soon their sweet song will ring out.Oh, yes soon, ah, yes soon!O song of the nightingale,beloved sound, ah, yes!

Love shines through, the song rings out,and the tone, sweet and dear,has a touch of melancholy,it cradles the heart gently in sweet dreams!

The night has hardly passed,when the lark’s song is first heard.

The sharp differences in the two owe to their origins. Where “The Blue Danube” was composed for amateur men’s choir, “Voices of Spring” was intended as a virtuoso soprano showcase, and was performed as such long before the popular piece was arranged for instruments alone. It is in the original that it is heard tonight.

—Kenneth LaFave

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Die Lerche etc.

Der Frühling in holder Pracht erwacht,ah, alle Pein zu End’ mag sein,alles Leid, entfloh’n ist es weit,entfloh’n ist’s heut gar weit;

ah, des Frühlings Stimmen klingen traut,ah ja, o süsser Laut, ah ach ja!

The skylark etc.

The spring awakens in lovely splendor,all pain ends,all suffering is banished,today it runs very far away;

oh, the beloved voices of spring ring out,oh yes, o sweet tones, oh yes!

English translation by Darrin T. Britting

Johann Strauss, Jr.: “Thunder and Lightning” Polka

When 19th-century Vienna wasn’t waltzing, it was doing the polka. In either case, the composer was likely to be a Strauss. The Strauss family was in the dance-music business almost from the start.

Johann Jr. had already made a name for himself composing and conducting his own orchestra at the Donnemayer Casino when he took over his father’s two orchestras on Johann Sr.’s death and combined them into one, touring the Western world and Russia as the Strauss Orchestra. Falling in behind him were younger brothers Josef and Eduard, both violinist/composers.

From 1868 comes the audacious polka “Thunder and Lightning,” which seeks to shake the heavens themselves. It was originally titled the “Shooting Stars” Polka, and in some ways that is a more apt title than “Thunder and Lightning,” since the recurring stream of 16th notes that punctuate every phrase in the opening strain could be taken as the sound equivalent of a bright light streaming across the heavens.

The sheer volume of this piece, however, led to the composer renaming it after something more consistent with its almost constant forte dynamic. Even when things get relatively mellow in the tuneful trio, the dynamic never settles into piano for terribly long. Crescendos abound. Orchestral tuttis pound out sudden fortissimos. The polka, the most aerobic of the great 19th-century ballroom dances to begin with, is here transmuted into a pure adrenalin rush.

—Kenneth LaFave

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Franz Lehár (1870-1948): “Gold and Silver” Waltz

The title is a coincidence. Written in 1902, this most popular of Lehár’s concert waltzes would seem to commemorate the passing, with the death of Johann Strauss Jr., of Viennese operetta’s Golden Age, and the arrival, with Lehár’s emergence, of its Silver Age. But those terms were applied only later.

Lehár’s focus as a composer reversed that of Strauss, who was a dance composer first, and an operetta composer only later. “Gold and Silver” is one of only a handful of concert works by the onetime military bandleader, while his operettas number 38. Here, as in the score for The Merry Widow, Lehár evinces a sense of nostalgia mixed with celebration.

—Kenneth LaFave

Johann Strauss, Jr.: Perpetuum mobile

The concise edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English defines “perpetuum mobile” as “a hypothetical mechanism running forever, unless subject to external forces or wear.” The “external force” that brings Strauss’s musical take on this concept is no less than the conductor. For this piece doesn’t “end” in the ordinary sense, but merely ceases on cue. It is common for Austrian conductors to announce to the audience as the composition is halted, “Und so weiter. ...” (“And so on. ...”)

—Kenneth LaFave

Johann Strauss, Jr., and Josef Strauss (1827-70): “Pizzicato” Polka

The polka is younger than the waltz. While the waltz has roots in the very late 18th century, the polka appeared in Prague in the 1830s, and was given cultural imprimatur by Paris society in the 1840s. Its fast, duple-meter frame is a necessary contrast to the triple-meter waltz. The unswerving polka is a perfect partner to the waltz, with its sense of seductive hesitation.

The “Pizzicato” Polka, a collaboration between brothers Johann and Josef, was composed in 1870 for one of the Strauss Orchestra’s many Russian tours. Big brother Johann said of Josef: “He is the more gifted of us two. I am merely the more popular.” Josef began adult life as an engineer, but switched at length to the family trade of music, where he excelled at composing rhythmic pieces. The grazioso feeling of the “Pizzicato” Polka exploits the rich sound of strings plucked (pizzicato) instead of bowed.

—Kenneth LaFave

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Johann Strauss, Jr.: “Champagne” Polka

It is said that Emperor Franz Joseph reigned over Austria only until Johann Strauss Jr. died. So completely was Strauss’s music associated with the latter years of the Hapsburg Empire that it is now difficult to conceive of this era without also thinking of the music of the Waltz King. In fact, many music-lovers today know little of this period but Strauss’s music. Even during his lifetime Strauss was recognized as the master of the waltz—as the composer whose utmost mastery of this distinctly Viennese dance transformed it into something more resembling a concept than a dance.

In addition to being the Waltz King, Johann Strauss also distinguished himself with “regal” contributions to the development of the 19th-century genres of polka and quadrille, publishing almost as many works in these genres as in the waltz—some 125 polkas in all, and some 50 quadrilles, spanning the course of his entire 50-year career. The former type is represented this evening by the “Champagne” Polka.

—Kenneth LaFave

“Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiss”

Ich weiss es selber nicht,warum man gleich von Liebe spricht,wenn man in meiner Nähe ist,in meine Augen schaut und meine Hände küsst.

Ich weiss es selber nicht,warum man von dem Zauber spricht,dem keiner widersteht,wenn er mich sieht,wenn er an mir vorübergeht!

“My Lips Have a Kiss like Fire”

I myself don’t even knowwhy men at once speak of love,when they are in my presence,when they look in my eyes and kiss my hands.

I myself don’t even knowwhy men speak of the magic,that no one can resist,when he sees me,when he passes me by!

Franz Lehár: “Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiss,” from Giuditta

Lehár transformed operetta to a point where, in his final stage work, Giuditta, written in 1934 for the Vienna State Opera, it vanished into the realm of light opera, until no real difference could be ascertained. A lifelong friendship with Puccini showed in the influence of Lehár-style operetta on the Italian’s own opera La rondine. This aria attests to the operatic nature of history’s final operetta.

—Kenneth LaFave

Please turn the page quietly.

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Doch wenn das rote Licht erglüht,zur mitternächt’gen Stund’,und alle lauschen meinem Lied,dann wird mir klar der Grund:

Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiss,meine Glieder sind schmiegsam und weiss,in den Sternen, da steht es geschrieben,du sollst küssen, du sollst lieben!

Meine Füsse, sie schweben dahin,meine Augen, sie lokken und glüh’n.Und ich tanz’ wie im Rausch,

denn ich weiss,meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiss!

In meinen Adern drinn’da rollt das Blut der Tänzerin,denn meine schöne Mutter war des Tanzes Königen im gold’nen Alcazar!

Sie war so wunderschön,ich hab’ sie oft im Traum geseh’n.Schlug sie das Tambourin zu wildem

Tanz,da sah man alle Augen glüh’n!

Sie ist in mir auf’s neu erwacht,ich hab das gleiche Los.Ich tanz’ wie sie um Mitternacht,und fühl’ das eine bloss:

Meine Lippen, etc.

But when the soft lights glow,at the midnight hour,and everyone listens to my song,then the reason becomes clear to me.

My lips have a kiss like fire,my arms are supple and white,it is written in the starsthat you must kiss me, you must love me!

My feet, they dance on air,my bright eyes pierce right through.And I dance in ecstasy,

because I knowmy lips have a kiss like fire.

Within my veins,there courses the blood of a dancer,for my beautiful mother was a queen of dance in the golden Alcazar!

She was so lovely,I have often seen her in dreams.She beat the tambourine during her wild

dance,everyone’s eyes were fixated on her!

She is awakened in me anew,I have the same fate.Like her I dance at midnightand only know one thing.

My lips, etc.

English translation by Darrin T. Britting

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Johann Strauss, Jr.: “On the Beautiful Blue Danube” Waltz

The world’s most famous waltz began as a commission from a Viennese men’s choral organization. The text was a simple verse in praise of the Danube River. Johann Strauss Jr. composed it in 1867, while living at 54 Praterstrasse with his first wife, Jetty. The house is now the site of a Strauss museum.

The premiere, in the version with men’s chorus, was greeted indifferently. But when Strauss introduced an all-orchestral version in concert later that year at the Vienna Volksgarten in the inner city, the lilting strains of this irresistible waltz shot to immediate popularity. The “Blue Danube” is now the unofficial second national anthem of Austria, and is inescapable when talking of, or thinking about, Vienna.

After a slow, dramatic introduction in A major, the piece settles down into the customary tempo di valse in gracious D major. The now-familiar melody swells from the chords of the key as naturally as waves might from the river Danube itself. The famous opening notes are nothing more than a D-major chord arpeggiated, and this gesture continues throughout the waltz’s first strain.

The rest of the waltz grows naturally out of the opening. Even the reflective slow section in F major starts by outlining an ascending F-major chord, while the brilliant coda piles arpeggiated triad upon arpeggiated triad until the end comes in an irresistible frenzy.

Almost universally praised as the greatest waltz ever composed, the “Blue Danube” is a little tone poem in waltz form, a picture of the river and of the life along the river. The distinguished music critic Eduard Hanslick called it “the definition of all that is Vienna: beautiful, pleasant, and merry.” Strauss’s friend, the great composer Johannes Brahms, when asked to sign the fan of Strauss’s stepdaughter, wrote out the first few bars of the “Blue Danube” and the words, “Alas, not by Johannes Brahms.”

—Kenneth LaFave

Program notes © 2013. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association, Luke Howard, and/or Kenneth LaFave.

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