SKU: A0.922640

Original by Johann Strauss II
Reduction to String Orchestra by Aaron Meier

Part: *Optional Percussion (snare drum, triangle, cymbals)

True to the original work by Strauss, this reduction for string orchestra features the ornaments and mystical writing that defines Strauss' polkas. There are optional percussion parts to be added at the discretion of the ensemble, however even without percussion the ensemble will sound full (the percussion acts as an ornament).

Difficulty: Intermediate-advanced - advanced (best-suited for advanced student ensembles)
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Performance Notes:

• Approximate length: 3:30 minutes
• 1st Violins: In m. 1, trill a half step from a Dâ™­ to a Dâ™® 
• 2nd Violins:
 - At m. 42, divide players by 3, with 2 players playing line A and the remaining player playing line B
 - At m. 72-75, emphasize the E♭ in the div.
• Snare Drum: The buzz roll needs to be quieter than how it is played in the midi recording (*see YouTube link ↓)

History:

The Olga-Polka itself owed its creation to a Russian royal wedding which took place in St. Petersburg on 28 August 1857. On that day, amid accompanying splendour, the music-loving Grand Duke Michail Nikolaievich (1832-1909), youngest brother of Tsar Alexander II, married Princess Caecilie of Baden (1839-91), daughter of Archduke Leopold of Baden. Johann Strauss, who at that time was giving a summer season of concerts in nearby Pavlovsk, used the opportunity occasioned by the event to enhance his already enviable popularity with the Russian royal family and composed the Caecilien-Polka in honour of the lovely young bride. Indeed, it is clear from a letter which Johann wrote in late July 1857 to Carl Haslinger, his publisher in Vienna, that the new polka had been prepared well in advance of the wedding (the fair copy of the full orchestral score made for the publisher's engraver is dated 9 August) and was enjoying success even before the royal couple's official engagement on 16August 1857. Sometime after performing the Caecilien-Polka in Pavlovsk, Johann despatched the work to the Austrian capital where his brother Josef conducted its Viennese première, together with that of Johann's waltz Telegraphische Depeschen (op. 195, Volume 28), at his own benefit concert in the Volksgartenon Sunday 18 October 1857. The Wiener Allgemeine Theaterzeitung (16.10.1857) remarked that both works have caused a sensation in St. Petersburg and are truly genial Viennese sounds full of verve and melody.

Since tradition demanded that the German Princess Caecilie adopt a Russian name - Olga Feodorovna - before her marriage, so Johann's Caecilien-Polka also underwent a change of identity. On 8 December 1857 Carl Haslinger announced the publication of Strauss's Olga-Polka, on the title page of which is the inscription: Dedicated to her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Olga, née Princess of Baden. It was under this title, too, that Johann himself first conducted the work in Vienna at a concert in the Volksgarten on 1 November 1857, shortly after his return from Russia. Reporting on this event, the Wiener Allgemeine Theaterzeitung (3.11.1857) observed: The 'Olga-Polka' is a most delightful, fragrant musical bouquet, full of fine, gracious rhythms.
[excerpted from NAXOS Records]
Kemp, Peter. Program Notes - About this Recording. NAXOS, 1993, www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.223232&catNum=223232&filetype=About%20.......... Accessed 5 June 2020.