Ninetta-Walzer, Op. 445 - Johann Strauss II скачать в хорошем качестве

Ninetta-Walzer, Op. 445 - Johann Strauss II

Ninetta-Walzer (Ninetta Waltz) Op. 445 - Johann Strauss II After the unequivocal failure of his laudable, if misguided, venture into the world of grand opera with Ritter Pásmán (1892), Johann Strauss found himself once again forced back for financial reasons into "the hated work on an operetta", as he wrote to his brother Eduard in autumn 1892. The new operetta was Fürstin Ninetta (Princess Ninetta), written by the successful comedy-writing team of Julius Bauer and Hugo Wittmann. Yet, notwithstanding the setting of this "scatterbrained and bombastic tale" in Strauss's favourite milieu – Italy – the composer's numerous letters to friends and colleagues indicate that he feared the very worst for this stage work. The day before the opening night of Fürstin Ninetta at the Theater an der Wien on 10 January 1893, Johann wrote to Adolf Müller junior, who was to conduct the new work: "Following the première of 'Ninetta', this, like all of my productions after their performance, no longer exists for me. But if it gets more than 20 performances, then I should like to hear it to ascertain how it is going when it has been worked on". In the event, Johann must have been dumbfounded by the complete success of Fürstin Ninetta at its première, an occasion attended by the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef himself, and by the stage work's eventual run of seventy-six performances. Musically, Fürstin Ninetta has much to commend it, and the separate orchestral numbers which Johann fashioned from its score exemplify many of the features which made him the leading dance music composer of his day. Among these pieces is the Ninetta-Walzer, first performed in the Redoutensaal of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna on 21 January 1893 on the occasion of an Imperial 'family dinner' to celebrate the forthcoming marriage on 24 January of Duke Albrecht of Württemberg (1865-1939), the Viennese-born heir-presumptive to the German Württemberg throne, and Archduchess Margarethe Sofie (1870-1902), eldest daughter of Archduke Karl Ludwig and sister of the ill-fated Archduke Franz Ferdinand (assassinated at Sarajevo in 1914). This world première performance was conducted neither by the composer nor by Eduard Strauss, but by Carl Michael Ziehrer (1843-1922) bandmaster of Infantry Regiment No. 4, the famous 'Hoch- und Deutschmeister' (also known as the Viennese 'Hause Regiment'). The first public performance of the new waltz followed a day later, on 22 January, when the band of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand Infantry Regiment No. 19 featured it in their concert in the Vienna Volksgarten. Not until 29 January 1893 did the Strauss Orchestra present a performance of the Ninetta-Walzer, when Johann personally conducted it at one of brother Eduard's regular Sunday public concerts in the Musikverein. On the same programme Johann also directed what was claimed as the first Viennese concert performance of another novelty – the Neue Pizzicato-Polka, which he had originally written for Eduard Strauss's concerts in Hamburg in April and May 1892, and which he subsequently interpolated into the Fürstin Ninetta score, first of all as a children's ballet and later as an intermezzo. The capacity audience in the Musikverein demanded two encores of the Ninetta-Walzer and three of the Neue Pizzicato-Polka. It should be noted, however, that while the advertisements for Eduard's Musikverein concert announced that both the Ninetta-Walzer and the Neue Pizzicato-Polka were enjoying their first public performances – patently incorrect, as we have seen – the audience gathered at Ronacher's establishment for a promenade concert given a little earlier that same afternoon by the 'Hoch – und Deutschmeister' band under Carl Michael Ziehrer were also being treated to a performance of these two works. Strauss invested his Ninetta-Walzer with a tranquil Introduction of great beauty, and the entire work breathes the unmistakable warmth of Italy which had inspired its creation. The opening waltz section (1A), foreshadowed at the start of the Introduction, presents an orchestral arrangement of the operetta's most popular number, "Einst träumte mir" (Once I dreamed), sung in Act 3 (No. 14) by the Egyptian Finance Minister, Kassim Pascha – a role performed at the operetta's première by Alexander Girardi. The principal melody of this waltz song also makes a fleeting appearance in the Blüthenkranz Johann Strauss'scher Walzer (Garland of Johann Strauss Waltzes) op. 292 which Eduard Strauss selected and arranged in 1894 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of his brother's public debut as composer and conductor. Conductor: Johannes Wildner Orchestra: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra (The speed of the original recording was increased, and many repeats were removed) (Warning: original waltz tempo is VERY slow!! Listen at your own risk!! XD)