History

123 Glamorous Nights

Legend has it that Johann Strauss cried bitter tears: Introducing his brand new „Morgenblätter“ (i.e. „Morning Papers“) Waltz at the Concordia Ball 1864, he had suffered a painful defeat against his life-long competitor Jacques Offenbach who stole the show that night, and most of the applause, with another especially composed waltz named „Abendblätter” (i.e. „Evening Papers“).

     

Dedicated to the Concordia and premiered in 1864 at the Concordia Ball.

    

     

    

This really hurt Strauss, the more so because after a splendid premiere on January 19th, 1863, Concordia Ball was set to become the ultimate highlight of Vienna’s glittering ball season. The influential paper Morgenpost had already named it „crown of the elite balls“. Journalist Heinrich Pollak wrote: “Many came to see, and others came to be seen”. Indeed, ministers and diplomats rubbed shoulders with artists and intellectuals, star actors and newspaper editors. Crown Prince Rudolf was a regular visitor, and Vienna’s leading composers wrote dance music especially for the ball, among them the Strauss brothers, Lehár, Millöcker, Franz von Suppé and Carl Michael Ziehrer.

The Concordia Ball even survived the end of the Empire, only to perish soon after, together with Austria’s freedom: The ball itself was cancelled during the Ständestaat regime. When the Nazis took over they dissolved the Press Club, and after the liberation in 1945, Vienna had to wait another 15 years for the return of its beloved Concordia Ball.  

In 1960, Concordia President Rudolf Kalmar found a dedicated supporter in Vienna’s Vice Mayor Hans Mandl, relocated the ball to the spectacular ambience of Vienna’s City Hall and scheduled it as the highlight of the Wiener Festwochen spring festival, in safe distance from the yearly ball event overload during carnival.

The Concordia Ball celebrated an amazing comeback as Vienna’s greatest, loveliest summer ball with guests dancing in the ceremonial hall and, weather permitting, outside in the arcade court. Vienna’s municipal gardening service provided floral decorations of such irresistible beauty that the ball program of 1969 deplored the esteemed guests to at least leave the flower pots in place.

Once again, seeing and being seen was the name of the game: Popular actor Heinz Conrads rode into the hall on a paper mache Pegasus to present the midnight show.
Poet Ernst Jandl reluctantly agreed to at least take part in a books tombola – “if you promise I don’t have to dance!” Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, guest of honor in 1974, when asked to open the ball officially, answered dryly: “What if I say no?”

    

   

Concordia Ball 1974: Chancellor Kreisky, Mayor Gratz und Dance Master Willy Fränzl

May 2020 will see the 123rd Concordia Ball. As it happens, its official motto will be „Morgen.Blätter.Walzer“, because while Offenbach’s „Abendblätter“ quickly faded from memory, Johann Strauss’s “Morgenblätter” Waltz slowly, but steadily gained a popularity which still shines today. We imagine that the maestro would have found this quite a comforting thought.