‘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 Such an acute psychic disorder can have organic causes, or be the result of drugs being consumed or withdrawn.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, 30. December 202619.30 o' clock Wuxi / Symphony Hall (无锡交响音乐厅)
Concert in Wuxi Symphony Hall
Johannes Wildner conductor
Program Johann Strauss II : Overture to the operetta "The Gypsy Baron" Eduard Strauss I : Brakes off / Quick polka op. 238 Josef Strauss : From Afar / Polka mazurka op. 270 Josef Strauss : Delirien / Waltz op. 212 Josef Strauss : Jockey / Quick polka op. 278 Johann Strauss II : Tales from the Vienna Woods / Waltz op. 325 Break Johann Strauss II : Overture to «A Night in Venice» Josef Strauss : On Holiday Travels! / Quick polka op. 133 Johann Strauss II : Fledermaus-Quadrille op. 363 Johann & Josef Strauss : Pizzicato Polka Johann Strauss II : Excursion Train / Quick polka op. 281 Josef Strauss : Fire-Proof! / Polka française op. 269 Karl Komzák II. : An der schönen grünen Narenta / Walzer
Wuxi / Symphony Hall (无锡交响音乐厅) 35 Qingyan Road, Xin‘an Subdistrict (无锡市新吴区太湖湾科创城核 Xinwu District, Jiangsu Wuxi China Show Map
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