Johann Strauss II - Kaiser-Walzer (Emperor Waltz), Op. 437

Strauss often played in the glittering Imperial balls, conducting the orchestra and playing the first violin at the same time.   The majestic launch of this fascinating waltz presents the backdrop of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the hegemony of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph in 1888. Johann Strauss II was Music Director of the Dance Hesperides of the Imperial Court from 1863 to 1872 and composed on occasion for the celebration of an imperial anniversary. The ingenuity of the melody of the Emperor Waltz, which was originally orchestrated for a full orchestra, is such that it was easily adapted for the four or five instruments of a chamber ensemble by the Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg in 1925. This waltz is a tender and somewhat melancholic work, which at times turns its gaze nostalgically to the old Vienna. The waltz praises the majesty and dignity of the old monarch, who was fully devoted to his people. It begins with a majestic, magnificent march, which soon re

Georges Bizet - Events in brief

A poster of a German version of Bizet's opera, Pearl Fishers.


1838
 Georges Bizet was born on 25 October in Montmartre, Paris.

1848 He begins studying at the Conservatory of Paris.
1857 Wins the Grand Prize of the Music Competition of Rome.
1858 Arrives in Rome for a three-year stay.
1859 Hospitalizes a sick friend from whom he contracted the disease that caused him inflammation of the laryns, from which he later died.
1860 Returns to Paris.
1861 Bizet is shaken by his mother's death.
1863 He is related to a neighbor who will prove to be a role model for Carmen.
1866 First performance of the opera The Beautiful Daughter of Perth, a rare success in public and critics.
1869 Marries Geneviève Halévy, daughter of his former music teacher.
1870 He enlisted in the French National Guard with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war.
1873 Begins composing Carmen.
1875 Carmen's first performance in March. He dies on June 3rd in Paris.



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