Brennende Liebe, Polka Mazurka, Op. 129 - Josef Strauss

"Burning Love". In the summer of 1862, at the request of his mother Anna, Josef Strauss had to travel to Russia as quickly as possible to relieve his brother Johann as director of the concerts in Vauxhall in Pavlovsk, near St Petersburg. Jean had sent word that he was ill, and after Josef’s arrival, he returned immediately to Vienna to marry singer Jetty Treffz in St Stephan’s Cathedral. Josef was not at all enthusiastic about being drafted to Russia, but he tried to make the best of the situation. He was able to fend for himself well enough, but in the end he was not able to displace his popular brother in the public’s favour. Only the titles of the compositions which he presented on his first appearance in Vienna—on 9th November in the Zum Sperl establishment—give an indication of Josef’s frame of mind upon his return to his native city. Josef Strauss called his new set of waltzes Freuden-Grüsse (Best Wishes), Op. 128, and also included a polka mazurka entitled Brennende Liebe. The illustrator of the title page attributed the polka mazurka, which is evocative and melancholic in the first part, to the series of works by Josef Strauss named after flowers. He drew three champion blooms, a flower known popularly and in poetry as “Burning Love”. But the artist did not look closely enough at Josef’s composition before designing the title-page. He would have noticed the description doloroso in the second motif of the first part of the piano excerpt. Whilst the concept painful’ did not have anything to do with the flower, it had very much to do with the composer’s feelings. Burning love had consumed “Pepi” Strauss because in Pavlovsk he had had to endure a separation of great distance from his beloved wife Caroline. With the polka mazurka Brennende Liebe he now disclosed to her his tender affection and the pain he had suffered on account of the separation.

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Painting: Finalmente Soli
Artist: Edoardo Tofano

Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester
Johannes Wildner