Flattergeister, Walzer, Op. 62 - Josef Strauss

"Fluttering Spirits". They come whirring along in the introduction, those social butterflies after whom Josef Strauss named the Flattergesiter waltz, that he wrote for the annual Fair in Hernals on 30th August 1858. On the title page of the first edition, they are pictured as lightly clad spirits hovering over bouquets of flowers, one of them turning towards a musician holding a guitar. Josef Strauss may, of course, have had in mind the more earthly kind of butterflies, and local social song-writers were not slow to compose rhymes to fit his charming waltz melodies.

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Painting: Scarborough Spa at Night
Artist: Francis Sydney Muschamp
Date: 1879

Wiener Philharmoniker
Zubin Mehta
Neujahrskonzert 2007