The eponymous Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka was Strauss’s response to the gossip in Vienna surrounding his love affairs in St. Petersburg (where he spent several summers between 1856 and 1865). What is your recomposition responding to – this “whirlwind ride” through the greatest hits of the Waltz King?
Mitterer: This polka is actually the very last piece in our compilation. "Tritsch Tratsch" (engl. tittle-tattle or chit-chat) is like Facebook, fake news and all that. A very current topic, and one of the reasons I chose this title.
The city of Vienna is celebrating 200 years of Johann Strauss II this year. His sound is traditionally associated with ball rooms, operetta stages and New Year's concerts. How did this commission come about?
Mitterer: Klangforum reached out and and asked me if I’d be up for it…
Zachhuber: Usually we only play Strauss's music through a little trick: Schoenberg's arrangement of the Kaiserwalzer [among others] is really quite sophisticated, but it essentially carries Strauss's music one-to-one. It allows us, as a contemporary music ensemble, to engage with this music. Otherwise, we don't have many points of contact with it. Of course, it is deeply ingrained, not just in our culture, but it's also a major export hit. And we considered Wolfgang to have the right touch for the job, to get to grips with this incredibly present and, in a way, robust music.
Mitterer: Strauss’s music is music for entertainment. It consists of refined melodies, clear bass lines, and in between some humbta, humbta. I didn’t find a single passage that wasn’t structured in 4, 8 or 16 bars. That makes it danceable and catchy. The love for ornamentation, little trills, and the very mannered melodic lines that Strauss came up with –that’s something I really grew to enjoy again. – And, obviously, the grand applause endings: there isn’t a single piece that is not inviting the audience to join in rousing acclamation. That’s what Strauss signifies for me.
Through which lens did you then engage with Strauss anew?
Mitterer: The commission was to orchestrate for Klangforum’s large ensemble and to incorporate electronics. That’s why, for example, there are also two pianos and an accordion. Amplification will be added to the double bass, because we need a strong bassline, almost jazzy, right at the core of the formation. For a Strauss copy you would probably need 100 violins... But we have three. So, from the outset, my approach was guided by a different set of options.
Zachhuber (laughs): Well, this whole Strauss thing is a strange phenomenon for me – a paradox, really. The things we believe we know inside out, that constantly surround us, that we encounter very early in life – at least if you live in Vienna – somehow become invisible precisely because they’re so omnipresent. This is music that’s almost impossible to encounter for the very first time, and thus, it is also rather tricky to play it with a fresh attitude.
In Austria, there’s also a tendency to turn things into icons. In every genre, there’s at least one representative who enjoys an almost iconic status. That also applies to this music to a certain extent. My aspiration is that this “Mittererian quake” will be an opportunity to shake things up, whirl through the music, and let us hear it anew.
Mitterer: The Strauss interpretations of today – 150 years after their first renditions – are usually quite placid and slow. They say, “Look how beautiful we can sound!” But after free jazz, the ’50s, ’60s, and everything that’s happened over the last 50 years, I don’t think that kind of approach holds any convincing place on stage anymore. That’s something for people who like watching Lipizzaner horses showjumping. We’re taking a much bolder approach and immediately cutting most of the repetitions – because in the original, it’s the same thing again, and again, and again. With a few tricks, I’ve tried to crack that open a bit.
At the beginning you had to agree upon a selection out of the sheer endless hit list of waltzes, dances, marches, and famous operetta melodies. How do you even make a choice?
Zachhuber: My colleague and horn player Christoph Walder prepared the compilation. He picked the pieces that are probably the most well-known. Essentially, this project is an encounter between the cultural significance of Strauss’s music and how Wolfgang deals with it. And that clash – that’s what I think will stand out most in our perception of the work.
Mitterer: Nevertheless, I was relieved that The Blue Danube was not on the list. (Zachhuber laughs.) That one’s just worn out. I would have had to drown it in waves of noise. Christoph Walder was correctly assessing my situation ahead of time.
From the Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka and the Kaiserwalzer to Roses from the South and Wiener Blut, 19 hits have been assembled. Which of these works did you particularly enjoy working on?
Mitterer: I really like the 2/4-bars a lot, the fast polkas, they just take off, like a rider galloping across an open field. It’s incredibly lively music, created by a composer who simultaneously performed as a musician. You can hear that in every phrase, and we evidently want to push that even further.
Zachhuber: And one may not overlook the fact that, even though this music seems simple on the surface, it requires artistry to add a layer of finesse to it. There are these tiny, carefully composed nuances, that you have to bring out in performance. I believe the way this music is played today is already far removed from how it was originally conceived. Over time, the paths of interpretation have become more and more well-trodden. Some might think, if one stretches out the ritardando even more, it’ll be even more beautiful, even more musical. That is nonsense, however.
Mitterer: That’s why we’re going in a completely different direction. I see it as something funkier, a bit edgier. We also let the percussionists improvise inside the time. That creates completely different auditory stimuli for the listeners. You can recognize Strauss, but nothing remains quite as it was. I’m teasing and luring the audience alongside their familiarity with this music.
Zachhuber: What is Strauss's music actually charged with for you?
Mitterer: Mainly those refined melodies, often played in unison across the instrumental sections. The rest is pretty straightforward: one, four, five, one.
Zachhuber: And from a sociological point of view?
Mitterer: Strauss probably picked up on social themes just to keep people talking about him – like any pop musician…
Zachhuber (laughs): Nothing has changed in that regard...
Mitterer: No, some things never change. But I see this composition as concert music, not some kind of social critique.
Klangforum’s artistic director, Peter Paul Kainrath, described you as an "experienced demolition expert, master builder, virtuoso of massive sound structures, editor and congenial musical root canal specialist". You have previously successfully subjected a diverse range of historical music inventory, composers and genres to your methods. How would you contextualize your approach?
Mitterer: "Musical root canal specialist" is a very nice neologism. "Demolition" is one thing, but "builder", more importantly, is another. Music from the Renaissance to the present day provides the canvas to shape one's own musical dialect. But then one should try to move beyond that.
Wolfgang, you have already indicated that tritsch tratsch packs more Johann Strauss into 75 minutes than ever before. How did you structure your composition, what kind of listening experiences have you set out to create?
Mitterer: Fewer repetitions, everything’s more concentrated and a bit faster. Each piece starts with the contemporary: the first two, three, four bars have little to do with Strauss, then the music tips over into the original and back again. From inception, the idea was to take 19 Strauss hits and arrange them into 13 five-minute pieces, each one ending with a signature Strauss applause finale.
With the use of electronics, you have developed your own signature style. How does this method allow you to explore dimensions beyond the original sound?
Mitterer: The electronics more or less replace the five violists, the seven second violins, and so on. Back in the day, they mostly served as grounding for the sound, over which the wind sections and first violins could then play their melodic lines. Now, if we underpin the ensemble with an electronic sound bed from the back of the ensemble, then every musician can be a soloist. No one must take on the task of holding the harmonic foundation anymore. With a little improvisation added, we find ourselves in a completely new world.
Did the thought of keeping a balance between an homage to Strauss and your own musical language cross your mind, or did that emerge naturally in the process of composing?
Mitterer: Well, in the end, I enjoyed that process much more than I expected. And I also learned a lot from Strauss all over again.
Strauss's work is repeatedly attributed a certain ambiguity: social critique, emotional depth of tragedy within comedy. Is this notion something that is of particular concern in this performance?
Mitterer: I don't want to overanalyze it. To me, it remains abstract music. I don't think that Strauss discussed political topics in the programme notes, because that's simply not how you make commercial music.
Does your composition reference other Strauss arrangements, such as those by Schoenberg?
Mitterer: No, that’s also already 100 years old and far removed. Things must progress. Of course, I am always happy when the conductor or the musicians come forward with their ideas. Whatever comes to light during the process of studying the score, I pretend to be dead and just listen to their new interpretation. (laughs)
So it’s up to the musicians to breathe life into it. Does the music reflect something back to you, beyond historical categories? How do you, as an instrumentalist, approach such a highly charged body of work?
Zachhuber: That will mostly be an instinctual process during rehearsals. Then we’ll decide what works and how we should play. If, as Wolfgang says, we play abstract, pure music, then of course we’ll focus on depth and clarity. However, I think this time will be a different situation. We do have quite some experience with reinterpreting iconic works and styles. From Schubert to Mahler, it’s common practice for us that we look back at what came before, engage with it, challenge it, and so on. Naturally, I’m very curious to see where this will lead.
Mitterer: I could perhaps tie it to one thing: A few times in the score, I’ve written “here briefly extremely Viennese”. And by that, I mean “hatschend”, swaying, i.e. the 1, 2, 3 waltz time has the 3 coming in late and a bit shorter, while the 2 is drawn out a little. You can exaggerate it to an extreme, and suddenly it becomes quite amusing.
Zachhuber: Almost like a caricature.
Mitterer: Exactly, leaning into the characteristic, or subtly hinting at it. These are questions of interpretation. There is always leeway to shape it.
It is rare for Klangforum Wien to perform Strauss's original melodies. How is it for you to play on your instruments, given they are usually in the business of expressing the core repertoire of modernism and the most advanced sound architectures?
Zachhuber: I can really only speak for myself. I concede, it's slippery terrain, a unique situation. But I believe that these doubts and uncertainties are a great opportunity, because they force us to rethink what we are actually doing here.
Have you developed a personal connection or particular attitude towards Strauss's music over the course of your career as a musician?
Zachhuber: Look, when you study in Vienna, the first encounter with Strauss is business related. It’s the kind of music with which you can easily and quickly start to earn money. But soon after this initial pecuniary relationship, once you go deeper during rehearsals, you get drawn in and you begin to appreciate the beauty and finesse of this music. It's not that easy to play it well. I still remember, when I used to perform grand symphonies with the big orchestras, I wasn't particularly nervous. However, once we got to the encore, which often was a piece by Strauss, I would find myself feeling the jitters a bit. This is music that’s supposed to sound effortless – but it’s not as simple as it pretends to be.
Does this allude to the often-cited floating lightness of the “Viennese sound”?
Zachhuber: The term 'Viennese' has been tossed around a lot. We could talk for hours about what its true essence is. I believe, we experience its ambiguity – sometimes in many layers – also in the noncommittal nature of communication between people. Visitors to Vienna are often astounded by this. We don't directly say something is good; instead we prefer to say “it's not bad”. That’s very much part of our culture, even though it's also a bit of a cliché, but we don't like to commit ourselves too much. And this is also true for this kind of music: the melodies could tip over to any side, into the tragic or the cheerful. They are balancing on a fine line. And this, in turn, influences the way we play and feel while performing. There are no handles to cling to. As robust as Strauss’s music may sound, it is actually like a slippery fish.
Is Klangforum’s ensemble therefore uniquely qualified to take on the challenge of this composition, to bring out these nuances, this brittleness, these sudden shifts?
Zachhuber: I actually hope that many are qualified to perform this composition well, but we might just have a bit of a head start.
Mitterer: As students, we all learned to play an instrument "regularly", not just the most advanced playing techniques. (Zachhuber laughs.) In this respect, I completely understand that a the ensemble also wants to engage with Mahler or with Baroque music. This hones the craft. And with Strauss, I can hear that every melody comes straight from the soul. There is nothing constructed or artificial. Everything is heard from within, authentic and put directly on paper. That's part of his magic, and creates this flow, this irresistible current that sweeps you into his music.
In March 2025, tritsch tratsch goes on tour to Asia (Hong Kong, Tokyo). The reference to Vienna in the ensemble's name carries the (modern) musical legacy of the city and disseminates it to the world. What kind of 'Viennese sound' will Klangforum present in Asia?
Zachhuber: We bring (a certain notion of) this sound involuntarily with us. Of course, when you read "Vienna", you might expect a certain level of genre-related expertise. In Asia, this will be especially interesting because there’s a great affinity for this music (Japan, China, etc.). We will see how this immanent distancing from the traditional interpretation of this music is received. Because it’s clear from the first note of this new piece that it’s not about playing Strauss one-to-one, but rather it’s about a certain perspective that Wolfgang is offering. It is precisely the open nature of this question, how it will be received, that makes this endeavor so exciting.
Wolfgang, you've even received inquiries about how much Strauss would actually be in the piece?
Mitterer: Exactly, just not too much Mitterer. (Both laugh.) That was clear and I had to think for a moment, because naturally that wouldn’t be my favorite thing to hear. But then I thought, let’s go on the offensive. "You have never heard so much Johann Strauss II in a mere 75 minutes!" We cut out a lot of repetitions. Plus, we play a little faster, sometimes much faster. So yes, in a way, it’s even more Strauss in 75 minutes. (laughs)
So what will the audience experience – in one word?
Mitterer: Fun – fun to listen.
Zachhuber: Let's see...
Interview: Johannes Gruber
In cooperation with Johann Strauss 2025 Vienna
