Strauss, Richard

Richard Strauss – Suite from the ballet Schlagobers TrV 243a (1932)

(b. Munich, June 11, 1864; d. Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 8 September, 1949)

In the Cake Shop’s Kitchen, March
Tea-blossoms’ Dance
Coffee’s Dance, Reverie
Schlagobers Waltz
Entrance of the Princess–Princess’s Dance, Waltz
Dance of the Small Pralines–Jumping Dance of the Crackers–Galopp
Minuet, Pas de deux
Finale, Allgemeiner Tanz

Strauss began writing his Viennese ballet Schlagobers in the late summer of 1921. The premiere took place at the Vienna State Opera on the 9th of May 1924 as part of the composer’s 60th birthday celebrations. It ran for only three performances and received a lukewarm reception from the public and a savaging from the critics—in short, despite a lavishly expensive production, it was a complete failure. Considered as being in poor taste, there were also both sociological and political undercurrents to account for this flop. It was solely Strauss’s naïve, if worthy attempt to restore something of the joie-de-vivre and grandeur of the Austrian capital’s imperial past that backfired in an inflation-plagued war-ravaged city where it was estimated 200,000 children were near to starvation. The work was entirely Strauss’s own conception: as joint director of the Staatsoper, he wrote the music to his own scenario, chose his producer, designer, and choreographer. In a comment to his old friend Romain Rolland, justifying his choices he declared: “I cannot bear the tragedy of the present time. I want to create joy. I need it.” Alas, Schlagobers, Austrian dialect for “whipped cream,” with a flimsy plot accompanying the portrayal of a whole range of (unobtainable) cakes and confectionary, was not the intended balm but rather resented by the distressed populace who were in need of bread and water. When the extravagance of the production became known, it was further derided as the Millionenballett. It represented what seems to have been the nadir of Strauss’s creative life. However, the composer was not as distraught as to dwell on his failure for long, even though the fiasco was a contributory factor to his resignation from the Staatsoper. He was already busily immersed in the creation of his “domestic” opera Intermezzo. ..

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