Favorers
Gunstwerber is a waltz by Johann Strauss Sohn (op. 4).
prehistory
The then 18-year-old Johann Strauss received in September 1844 by the magistrate of the city of Vienna , the permission to be allowed to play with his orchestra now available at public events ball.
Just 6 weeks later, on October 15, 1844, Johann Strauss gave his first concert as a conductor and composer in the Casino Dommayer in Hietzing , a suburb of the imperial city of Vienna near the Schönbrunn Palace .
Johann's father of the same name had actually forbidden his sons to pursue a career as a musician, but the mother had other plans out of revenge for her husband's infidelity.
Premiere
Casino Dommayer was very popular in Viennese society and announced a “ Soirée dansante” for that evening , but the sensation that the son of the famous waltz composer gave his first concert attracted so many people that it was because of the crowd in the hall dancing was out of the question.
Strauss wrote the waltz Gunstwerber, which was later published as op. 4, especially for this debut . The audience was very expectant and the question of whether the father had passed his composing talent on to his son could be answered with yes at the end of the evening.
criticism
The audience was delighted and satisfied, and days later the editor of the Österreichisches Morgenblatt wrote the following words: “I myself have only heard Auber's overture and the 'Favorers', as only hyper-enthusiasts were able to wrestle for hours in this heat But from these two pieces I have seen quite well that there is a very capable directional talent inherent in Strauss and that with regard to his compositions he has the same melodic flow and the same piquant and effective instrumentation as his father, of whose composition he is not even a Slavic imitator may be mentioned. "