Robert Stolz was born in Graz, Austria, on August 25, 1882. His parents
were musical, his father being a successful conductor and teacher, and
his mother a concert pianist. Robert’s music study took place first with
his father, then with Robert Fuchs in Vienna and Humperdinck in Berlin.
In 1901 he assumed his first post as conductor, at an opera house in
Brunn. When he was twenty-five he was appointed conductor of the
Theater-an-der-Wien in Vienna where he remained twelve years, directing
most of the masterworks in the field of Austrian and German operettas.
His own career as composer of operettas had begun in 1903 with _Schoen
Lorchen_ produced in Salzburg. Since then Stolz has written music for
about sixty operettas, scores for more than eighty films, and a thousand
songs in all. His music is in the light, graceful, ebullient style that
has characterized Viennese operetta music since the time of Johann
Strauss II. His most famous operettas are: _Die lustigen Weiber von
Wien_ (1909), _Die Gluecksmaedel_ (1910), _Die Tanzgraefin_ (1921),
_Peppina_ (1931), _Zwei Herzen in dreiviertel Takt_ (1933), _Fruehling
im Prater_ (1949) and _Karneval in Wien_ (1950). In 1938 Stolz came to
the United States where for several years he worked in Hollywood. After
the end of World War II he returned to Vienna, remaining active as a
composer not only in that city but also in Berlin and London.
Stolz’ most famous song is “_Im Prater bluehn wieder die Baeume_” (“In
the Prater the Trees Are Again Blooming”), a glowing hymn not only to a
district in Vienna famous for its frolic and amusement but even more so
to the city of Vienna itself.
A waltz from his operetta, _Two Hearts in Three-Quarter Time_ (_Zwei
Herzen in dreiviertel Takt_) is perhaps one of the most celebrated
pieces in three-quarter time written in Vienna since Lehár, and it is
loved the world over. This operetta originated in 1931 as a German
motion-picture which won accolades around the world for its charm and
freshness, for which Stolz wrote a score that included his famous waltz.
It was then adapted for the stage by Paul Knepler and J. M. Willeminsky
and introduced in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1933. This delightful text
concerns the trials and tribulations of producing an operetta. That
operetta is accepted for production on the condition that a good waltz
melody is written for it, and the composer Toni Hofer gets his
inspiration for that tune from lovely Hedi, the young sister of the
librettist. This waltz, of course, is the title number, which, in its
lilt and buoyancy and Viennese love of life, is in the best tradition of
Viennese popular music.