Strauss as Pop Music
While watching the Vienna New Year’s Concert today, reading about its perhaps somewhat problematic origins, I was struck by the observation that the Strauss family’s polkas were seen as pop music during their lifetime, not as serious as proper classical composers, and so it took some time before the Vienna Philharmonic would actually play their work. (Perhaps the space-themed interval today and the ballet dancers pretending to be a steam train were a continuation of the true spirit of this?...