Johann Strauss : Russischer Marsch op. 426 (Russian March) - Riccardo Muti / Wiener Philharmoniker

The Russischer Marsch, one of Johann Strauss's 'characteristic marches', belongs to that group of new compositions with which the Viennese maestro charmed audiences attending his series of charity concerts in St. Petersburg in 1886. This trip to Russia, made at the invitation of the 'Russian Society of the Red Cross' and a children's charity, was to be Johann's final visit there, and came after a lapse of seventeen years since his last concert engagement at nearby Pavlovsk (1869). There had been many changes during the intervening years, and after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II by Nihilists in 1881, the autocratic power had passed into the hands of his son, Alexander III (1845-94). The court society which surrounded the new Tsar may have known little of life in Russia thirty years earlier, but was well aware of Strauss's reputation as the darling of the public, and as a favourite of the Imperial family, through his triumphant 'Russian summers' at Pavlovsk during the years 1856-65. The appearance of the Viennese maestro in St. Petersburg in 1886 once again occasioned an outbreak of 'Strauss fever', with shops offering pictures, busts and statuettes of the conductor/composer, while one enterprising manufacturer even produced "Strauss Cigarettes" with Johann's likeness on the packet.




The venue for the 1886 charity concerts was the vast riding school of the Horse Guards Regiment in St. Petersburg, and the 80-strong orchestra of the Imperial Russian Opera had been provided for the concerts. While Professor K. Siecke was charged with the conducting of the symphonic portions of each programme, Johann conducted only his own compositions. The majority of the works he performed were those which had proved popular in Pavlovsk during the 1850s and 1860s, but these were supplemented by more recent works like the Brautschau-Polka (op. 417) and Schatz-Walzer (op. 418), both based on themes from his latest operetta success, Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron, 1885). In addition, Johann composed four new works especially for his 1886 Russian visit - 2 waltzes, a polka and a march. It was at his third concert, on 29 April 1886 (= 17 April, Russian calendar), that he unveiled his Marche des Gardes à Cheval (March of the Horse Guards), written as a tribute to the Tsar's bodyguard in whose riding school the concerts took place.




Although the Marche des Gardes à Cheval is without doubt "uniquely interesting", as the critic of the St. Petersburger Zeitung opined of this and the polka-mazurka Mon salut (= An der Wolga op. 425), its title does not really suit the character of the piece. Far from being a 'cavalry march', in the style of the Grossfürsten-Marsch (op.107, Volume 25 of this CD series) or the Caroussel-Marsch (op. 133, Volume 6) for example, this work is more descriptive of heavily-laden Russian foot-soldiers trudging wearily through the snow, even to the extent of the diminuendo at the end of the piece as the column of soldiers disappears into the distance. Thus, much more apposite was the name with which the march was rechristened for audiences in Vienna when Johann conducted its first performance there as an encore item during Eduard Strauss's benefit concert in the Musikverein on 7 November 1886: the Russischer Marsch. This was also the title under which August Cranz published the work, together with the composer's dedication to "his Majesty Alexander III, Emperor of Russia etc. etc".

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[neuIlaryRheinKlange]

Neujahrskonzert 1997? :)

[NEWKINGOFWALZER]

si :)

[Maxcheni]

The Music is nice, but the whole Communistic pictures destroy the harmony...

Russia is a beautiful country and no longer the place of cruelty and corruption like it was for 70 years!!

Not Stalin, nor Lenin deserve this kind of honouring! The scars, wich the communism brought, are to deep to bring this criminals in a glorious context with the russian march and Russia Itself, altough its a part of his history!

[MySiberianTiger]

@Maxcheni

you know if i met you I kill you!!

My grandfarther brought peace, protection, education, food for poores.

You know why? Because he was a communist!

[HaloPlay100]

@8SteveGerrard8 Nazism was there because the German people, not all, believed themselves to be superior to the rest.

Now that is bad

[HaloPlay100]

@8SteveGerrard8 Consider why communism was implemented in the first place.

The intention was to provide for all and for all to be equal, but people like Stalin ruined the whole thing. Communism is not inherently bad, it is good, but is impossible in an imperfect world like this.

[Alexjr1543]

@Maxcheni You'd be surprised.

[okkith64]

@Maxcheni

Sure, go vote for Putin, fool

[8SteveGerrard8]

@MySiberianTiger and how do you justify the 100millions who died because of Stalin? How do you justify the labour camps where a number of my ancestors were taken and just one returned? Surely you can't give a rational explanation why whole settlements were forced to starve to death. Communism is as evil as nazism, end of story.

[skimdit]

Why not play some of Hitler's favorite marches?

[MooseTactic]

@MySiberianTiger

I couldn't help but laugh after reading your comment, I'm not trying to offend you but. . .You just stated that you'd commit homicide upon meeting someone for being against communism. . .and then you went on to say that your grandfather was kind because he was communist.

Kindness isn't determined by whether someone's economics god is Adam Smith or Karl Marx.

[russplav]

А при чём тут Россия? Коммунисты разве могут быть русскими, если они интернационалисты? Они разве не отреклись в 1917 году от своего Народа и Веры предков ради Счастливого Будущего для себя? А их кумиры - ленин, сталин, троцкий, эти тоже русские? ... Ну, тогда я, бля, эскимос.

[AvvocatodiTito]

How can you celebrate both Stalin and Trockji in the same video?Stalin was a merderer and a tyrant,Trockji was a true revolutionist.

[NaturalisPhaenomena]

@Maxcheni You clearly have a flawed (Western) picture on Communism and the history of the soviet union. You people in the west, me included, I live in Norway, have to remember the world was split into two. The entire world perspective was divided between the east and west, with severe damaging propaganda, lies, distortion and exaggeration from both sides. Russia no longer spread lies about the western civilization, but the US continues to distort eastern history.

See from both sides.