Die Ersten nach den Letzten, Walzer, Op. 12 - Josef Strauss

"The First after the Last". After the serious illness of his brother Johann in December 1852, Josef Strauss was forced to give up his career as an engineer and architect and join the family waltz business. On 23rd July 1853, “Pepi” Strauss appeared for the first time at the head of the orchestra, specifically as a substitute (“acting orchestra director”). In August 1853, at the Hernals church celebration, he found himself having to step in for his brother as a composer as well, because Johann had failed to send the dedication waltzes for the Ball in Unger’s Casino from Bad Neuhaus in the Untersteiermark, where he was on holiday. Josef Strauss, who had acquired the necessary skills at his brother’s side, therefore wrote a suitable waltz piece. But he called the work Die Ersten und Letzten (The First and Last). That could only mean: “Once and no more”. But since Josef Strauss had great success with his composition, which appeared later in print as Op. 1, and he had also to continue to direct at the side of Johann at concerts and balls, he was not able to maintain his resolve. As Josef had to take over the direction of the orchestra alone in May 1854 because Johann went on vacation again, he contributed additional compositions to the repertoire of the orchestra. Among them was a new waltz piece, and “Pepi” Strauss had enough of a sense of humour to call it (with a little irony, but also with resoluteness) Die Ersten nach den Letzten. Exactly when this work was presented for the first time cannot be determined. At the concert in Unger’s Casino in Hernals on 2nd July 1854, Die Ersten nach den Letzten was included in the group of Josef’s “newest compositions”. This means that the brilliant set of waltzes was already known to the public at that time. It can be assumed that Josef Strauss, at about the same time that he took up the baton of the Strauss orchestra, had retracted his resolve of the summer of 1853 and therefore presented his second set of waltzes to the public no later than June 1854. The set of waltzes Die Ersten nach den Letzten first appeared in the spring of 1856, and indeed apparently as Josef’s only composition from the summer of 1854. The other early works from these months remained unpublished and are therefore lost. But it is astonishing how perfect this second set of waltzes by the 27-year-old composer was. The real Strauss can already be appreciated, as well as Josef’s personal character.

Painting: Ball in the Concert Hall of the Winter Palace, Russia
Artist: Mihaly Zichy
Date: 1840

Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra
Karl Albert Geyer