Johann Strauss II : Ägyptischer Marsch (Egyptian March) Op.335 - Willi Boskovsky

Ägyptischer Marsch (Egyptian March) Op. 335

The formal opening of the Suez Canal -- linking Port Said, on the Mediterranean Sea, and the Egyptian port of Suez, on the Red Sea -- was celebrated on 16 November 1869 by an inaugural ceremony at Port Said. On the following day sixty-eight vessels of various nationalities began the passage, arriving at Suez four days later.

The opening of this artificial waterway created considerable interest around the world, and in Vienna gave rise to Anton Bittner's burlesque, Nach Ägypten (Into Egypt), presented at the Theater an der Wien on 26 December that year. It was here as a processional march for Egyptian warriors before the final scene, that the Viennese public first became acquainted with the sinuous themes of Johann Strauss's Ägyptischer Marsch. The composer, ever mindful of current affairs, had in fact written the piece for his 1869 summer concert season in Pavlovsk -- shared that year with his brother Josef -- and had conducted its première at the Vauxhall Pavilion there on 6 July (= 24 June, Russian calendar) at a benefit concert for the two brothers.

Willy Boskovsky
Wiener Philharmoniker