Josef Strauss: Ardent Love (Brennende Liebe) / Polka mazurka op. 129 (1863)

Johannes Wildner, Conductor Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester | Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra Live recorded on 15 May 2016 in the Golden Hall of the Viennese Musikverein. Synopsis: The polka mazurka Brennende Liebe (Ardent Love), op. 129, was composed by Josef Strauss in Pavlovsk in 1862. However, there it was performed as Amorette, or Küsse mich (Kiss me), with the opus number 122, although there is no connection to the polka française Amourette, op. 147, which he composed later. Josef gave the first performance of the work as one of several new pieces at his first benefit concert in Pavlovsk on 1 [13 NS] September 1862. The polka mazurka must have been well received as it was, rather unusually, also performed on the two following days. In the month to the final concert of the season it appeared on the programme no fewer than ten times. After his return to Vienna, Josef presented the piece to the public there on 9 November at the Sperl establishment, for the first time under the title Brennende Liebe — ‘ardent love’. It is now no longer possible to determine who was responsible for the renaming and why it was done. The new title is taken from one of the everyday German names for plants of the genus Lychnis, variously known in English as, for example ‘ragged robin’ or ‘cuckooflower’. The plant, shown on the title page of the first edition for piano, has bright red flowers. The romantic associations of the German name were explored in a poem by Julius Mosen which appeared in 1836: ’In my little garden there smile many flowers bright and red, But of them all it’s burning love which troubles heart and head.’ The poem’s popularity is shown by the surprisingly large number of times it was set to music in the middle of the nineteenth century, albeit by composers who have now been mostly forgotten. It may be assumed that the world of thought conjured up in the poem was what gave rise to the title the polka mazurka was ultimately given. Be that as it may, it is titles like this that have helped to create the image of the ‘poetic’ Josef Strauss. Synopsis: Dr. Thomas Aigner Translation: Dr. Leigh H. Bailey