In the 1920s the Berlin home of operetta composer Oscar Straus became the gathering place of the brightest people in Europe. Entrepreneurs, theatrical managers, actors, statesmen, scientists, and musicians mingled–sometimes with amusing results.
A regular visitor to the Straus home was Albert Einstein. The great physicist and Straus sometimes talked for hours, and when asked what they were discussing, Straus quipped that the conversation was relatively difficult, “I want to talk about mathematics and astronomy all the time,” Straus said, “and he wants to talk about music, but somehow we always bring our parallel lines together in the end.”
As an amateur violinist, Einstein was not above being the butt of a good-natured joke. One day he asked Straus, “Do you think I could try to give a little concert of my own at the Philharmonic?”
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“Of course, Professor,” Straus said. “You’ll have a tremendous success and you can make a lot of money too.”
Einstein was encouraged. “Oh, do you really think so?”
“Indeed I do,” Straus told him. “Just advertise the concert and put on all the posters: Entrance free. Then, after a few items, if people want to leave the Philharmonic, they find a poster on all the doors saying: Exit, ten marks.”
When it came to his music, though, Einstein would take only so much abuse, and one incident showed that he was a virtuoso of the comeback. He enjoyed playing the violin and liked to take part in drawing-room concerts. One evening he and Straus were playing a Mozart violin sonata. The Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár was in the front row laughing and talking to the lady next to him. When he had finished playing, Einstein said to Molnár, “It’s not very nice of you to keep on laughing while I play the violin. Have you ever seen me laugh during one of your comedies?”
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