Great excitement greeted the news, in 1898, that Johann Strauss III (1866-1939), a civil-servant and the son of the Court Ball Music Director Eduard Strauss, was to make his debut as an operetta composer. The work, Katze und Maus (Cat and Mouse), was a treatment of Scribe’s comedy Der Damenkrieg (The Ladies’ War), and opened at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien on 23 December 1898. The individual dance pieces based on its melodies proved especially popular with military bands during the 1899 Vienna Carnival – none more so than the exhilarating quick-polka Schlau-Schlau
(Crafty, Crafty), which in part derives from the Act II duet ‘In everything, you’ve got to be crafty!’.
Conductor: Jack Rothstein
Orchestra: Johann Strauss Orchestra