‘On Tuesday evening the Medical Students’ Ball was held in the elegant and newly decorated rooms of the Sofiensaal establishment,’ the Vienna daily Neues Fremden-Blatt reported two days later, on Thursday 24 January 1867, and went on, ‘Joseph Strauss played an enchanting waltz, which was greeted with much applause and has already been published by Spina.’ ‘To the gentlemen students of medicine at the University of Vienna’ is the dedication which can be found on the title page of the piano edition of the new waltz. The term ‘delirium’ (‘Delirien’ is the plural form in German) is used to refer to a form psychosis with disorders of consciousness and orientation, sometimes with delusions. Such an acute psychic disorder can have organic causes, or be the result of drugs being consumed or withdrawn. Josef Strauss begins his new composition with an introduction which is completely atypical of previous Viennese waltzes: it is melancholy music which is struggling for freedom, which takes its direction from Richard Wagner’s art of instrumentation. The music is driven along for twenty-seven bars in 12/8 time, an ‘allegro maestoso’ with a nervous tremolo and frequent modulations as well as a series of diminished seventh chords, and in it there is a pathological component to be heard which certainly does justice to the title. In the spring and summer of 1867 the Viennese music publisher Carl Anton Spina quickly brought out an edition for piano solo and then one for piano duet, followed by an arrangement for violin and piano and, of course, the orchestral parts. Josef Strauss’s waltz Delirien is one of his best and most popular compositions, not least because of its introduction, a stroke of genius that places the work far above the reason why it was composed, that is to provide dance music for the medical students’ ball.
Wednesday, 01. May 202411.00 o' clock Vienna ⁄ Musikverein ⁄ The Große Musikvereinssaal
Frühlingskonzert im Goldenen Saal
Christoph Koncz conductor
Program Johann Strauss II : Ouverture to «Die Fledermaus» Johann Strauss II : Bitte schön / Polka française op. 372 Johann Strauss II : Perpetual Motion / Musical joke op. 257 Johann Strauss II : Treasure Waltz op. 418 Johann Strauss II : Eljen A Magyar! « Long Live the Magyar!» / Quick polka op. 332 Josef Strauss : Delirien / Waltz op. 212 Break Otto Nicolai : Ouverture zur Oper «Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor» Josef Strauss : Heart of Woman / Polka mazurka op. 166 Josef Strauss : Music of the Spheres / Waltz op. 235 Josef Strauss : On Holiday Travels! / Quick polka op. 133 Léo Delibes : Pizzicato from the ballet Sylvia Johann Strauss II : The Blue Danube / Waltz op. 314 Encore Joseph Hellmesberger jun. : Leichtfüssig / Polka schnell op. 184 Johann Strauss I : Radetzky March op. 228
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