Product Description
Original
by Johann Strauss II
Reduction to String Orchestra by Aaron Meier
Part: Double Bass
True to the original work by Strauss, this
reduction for string orchestra features the ornaments and mystical writing that
defines Strauss' polkas. There are optional percussion parts to be added at the
discretion of the ensemble, however even without percussion the ensemble will
sound full (the percussion acts as an ornament).
Difficulty: Intermediate-advanced - advanced (best-suited for advanced
student ensembles)
---
Performance Notes:
Approximate length:
3:30 minutes
1st Violins: In m. 1, trill a half step from a D to a D
2nd Violins:
- At m. 42, divide players by 3, with 2 players playing "line A" and the
remaining player playing "line B"
- At m. 72-75, emphasize the E in the div.
Snare Drum: The buzz roll needs to be quieter than how it is played in the
midi recording (*see YouTube link )
History:
The Olga-Polka itself
owed its creation to a Russian royal wedding which took place in St. Petersburg
on 28 August 1857. On that day, amid accompanying splendour, the music-loving
Grand Duke Michail Nikolaievich (1832-1909), youngest brother of Tsar Alexander
II, married Princess Caecilie of Baden (1839-91), daughter of Archduke Leopold
of Baden. Johann Strauss, who at that time was giving a summer season of
concerts in nearby Pavlovsk, used the opportunity occasioned by the event to
enhance his already enviable popularity with the Russian royal family and
composed the Caecilien-Polka in honour of the lovely young bride. Indeed, it is
clear from a letter which Johann wrote in late July 1857 to Carl Haslinger, his
publisher in Vienna, that the new polka had been prepared well in advance of
the wedding (the fair copy of the full orchestral score made for the publisher's
engraver is dated 9 August) and was enjoying success even before the royal
couple's official engagement on 16August 1857. Sometime after performing the
Caecilien-Polka in Pavlovsk, Johann despatched the work to the Austrian capital
where his brother Josef conducted its Viennese première, together with that of
Johann's waltz Telegraphische Depeschen (op. 195, Volume 28), at his own
benefit concert in the Volksgartenon Sunday 18 October 1857. The Wiener
Allgemeine Theaterzeitung (16.10.1857) remarked that both works "have
caused a sensation in St. Petersburg and are truly genial Viennese sounds full
of verve and melody".
Since tradition
demanded that the German Princess Caecilie adopt a Russian name - Olga
Feodorovna - before her marriage, so Johann's Caecilien-Polka also underwent a
change of identity. On 8 December 1857 Carl Haslinger announced the publication
of Strauss's Olga-Polka, on the title page of which is the inscription:
"Dedicated to her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Olga, née Princess of
Baden". It was under this title, too, that Johann himself first conducted
the work in Vienna at a concert in the Volksgarten on 1 November 1857, shortly
after his return from Russia. Reporting on this event, the Wiener Allgemeine
Theaterzeitung (3.11.1857) observed: "The 'Olga-Polka' is a most
delightful, fragrant musical bouquet, full of fine, gracious
rhythms".
[excerpted from NAXOS
Records]
Kemp, Peter.
"Program Notes - About this Recording." NAXOS, 1993, www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.223232&catNum=223232&filetype=About%20..........
Accessed 5 June 2020.
Resources:
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