Irrlichter

There is hardly an occasion or mood for which Johann Strauss did not write a waltz or polka. He possessed the unique talent to create from titles seemingly selected at random, precise and witty illustrations with ease. In his five-waltz sequence Irrlichter [phantom lights] for example, we are treated to a mysteriously shimmering, highly ornamental melodic world which could not be more ‘phantasmic’. The musicological, critical and newly engraved Strauss Edition Vienna contains extensive material on existing sources and different versions of the work.