'BLUE DANUBE' WALTZ

Evening Star, Issue 22631, 24 April 1937, Page 26

'BLUE DANUBE' WALTZ

STRAUSS CELEBRATION IN VIENNA Vienna recently re-echoed to the music of the most famous Waltz ever written, the ‘ Blue Danube ’ waltz of Johann Strauss, the world-conquering dance tune—when its seventieth birthday was celebrated. It was on February 13, 1867. that the ‘ Blue Danube ’ was first performed at the old Diana Saal —to-day the Diana Bad, the best of Vienna’s wonderful swimming and Turkish baths, which incidentally has lately been much frequented by the Duke of Windsor. During the birthday celebrations a tablet was unveiled there to commemorate the first performance. The waters of the Danube, diverted through the-swift-flowing cut known as the Danube Canal, actually wash the foundations of the Diana Bad. On the occasion of that first performance it was the famous orchestra of the brothers Edward and Joseph Strauss which played it, assisted by the Vienna Male Voice Choir, who sang the words. It was originally a choral composition of Johann Strauss, written for a poem about the Danube of which he was also the author. During the Paris Exhibition in 1867 Strauss discarded the choral part and conducted the waltz himself for the first time as an orchestral number.

The celebrations included the deposit, of a wreath on the curious little gilded bronze statue of Johann Strauss playing his famous melody which, stands in the Vienna Stadtpark. Governmental, municipal, and musical personages participated in a ceremony outside the shabby old house, Praterstrasse No. 54. on the first floor of which Strauss composed his waltz 70 years ago.

The ‘ Blue Danube ’ was further honoured at a concert of the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by the composer’s grandson, Johann Strauss, Dr Felix Weingartner, and Professor Ferdinand Grossman. The original manuscript of the waltz is in the archives of. the Vienna Male Choir, for which he wrote it, and who also sang it at the i concert. i