HOW VIENNA GOT THE "BLUE DANUBE"

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 108, 8 May 1937, Page 27

HOW VIENNA GOT THE "BLUE DANUBE"

The "Blue Danube Waltz" is seventy years old, and Vienna is devoting an entire year to honour the memory of Johann Strauss, the younger, composer of the piece, says the "New York Her-ald-Tribune," Historians disagree as to the day when Vienna first heard the waltz, but it was in February, 1876; some say it was the 13th, and others that it was the 15th.

■ While the precise date of presentation remains undetermined, there is no uncertainty about how the piece was received. .Vienna didn't like it. In fact, after the" first presentation in a large dance hall there was every indication that the "Blue Danube Waltz" was an artistic flop.

. "The hall, was hot, there was standing room only, and one was pushed around every way by the elbows of -inattentive listeners," wrote an old critic. Of the piece itself, he said little, although he admitted it possessed a little swing.

Johann Strauss, who directed the orchestra, for the premier, saw little future for the waltz. In the depths of his first disappointment he exclaimed to his brother Josef: "So far as I am concerned, the devil may take this waltz, but I am. a little sorry about

the theme—l thought it was. pretty good." His fondness for the theme probably saved the piece. When Strauss, the same year,, was invited to play at the World's Fair in Paris, he decided to "try out the waltz" on a French audience. He hoped it might appeal to hearers of a different temperament.

It was played, among other places, at the Austrian Embassy in the presence of Emperor Napoleon 111, the King of .Hanover, the Prince of Wales, and the Crown Prince of Italy.

There was also the editor of "Figaro," who thought he heard something which had escaped the ears and the hearts of the Viennese. Rushing back to his office, he."wrote glowing praise of the "Blue Danube Waltz," struck up a friendship with Strauss, and set off an editorial campaign to popularise,the piece. It did not need much pushing, and once started the waltz spread with amazing rapidity to the corners of the earth. It came pack to Vienna and the populace there, a little ashamed oi itself for having to be told by a Paris editor what is good in the way of waltzes, listened to it once more, embraced it, and made it its own.