As a notice in the Fremden-Blatt newspaper on 3 July 1860 proclaimed, Josef Strauss had prepared an auspicious programme for his benefit concert scheduled for this date in the Volksgarten. At that time, rehearsals in the Royal Opera House for the scheduled première of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde had been cancelled, since the work had been categorised elsewhere as “unperformable”. At his concert Josef Strauss offered fragments of this work with his own arrangement. Unfortunately, this fascinating glimpse into Viennese musical history has been lost. Even the Julius Ceasar Overture, which was written by Robert Schumann and which Josef Strauss performed at this same evening benefit concert, has practically disappeared from the concert repertoire of our time. Thus the unassuming little Mignon-Polka must serve as the sole reminder of the event. It was termed a “new composition” by Josef Strauss, a sample of Viennese music of 1860, in a concert of ambitious performances of symphonic works. Moreover, there is also a literary reference associated with this polka: Mignon is the name of a lovely young maiden in Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister; she was later the heroine of an opera by Ambroise Thomas (premièred in Paris in 1866, performed in Vienna on 24 October 1868).

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Painting: Advertising depicting act 3, scene 9: Mignon recovers and discovers her true father and homeland from Ambroise Thomas' Opera "Mignon".

Slovak State Philarmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Christian Pollack