Die Schwätzerin, Polka Mazurka, Op. 144 - Josef Strauss

"The Gossip". The title page of the first edition's piano score shows a young lady with a parrot which she admonishes with a raised finger. Is the bird, then, the gossip, who possibly blurts out a family secret?. In the orchestra it os, in any case, the oboe which makes itself heard insistently right from the beginning of the work and which at the conclusion of the Polka also has the "last word". This gossip is greeted each time by the audience's laughter. Even at the premiere of the Polka Mazurka, which took place on 17 June 1863 at a concert at the Sperl establishment in Leopoldstadt, there was rousing applause, and Josef was able to perform the amusing work again as a novelty before another audience at his benefit concert on 23 June 1863 in the Volksgarten. At this performance, too, he earned brisk applause. The work is well-liked even today, always evoking a mirthful response.

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Painting: Lady with Parrot
Artist: Eugène Joors

Wiener Philharmoniker
Willi Boskovsky