jilipark A Child Star of the 19th Century Gains New Fame in the 21st

Updated:2025-01-08 05:58    Views:165

The city of Vienna has already begun celebrating the bicentenary of Johann Strauss Jr., known as the waltz king. Waiting in the wings is Constanze Geiger, who also composed successfully for the genre.

Her “Ferdinandus Waltz,” written when she was 12, will be the first work by a female composer programmed by the Vienna Philharmonic in its New Year’s Concert next week. The Philharmonic violinist Raimund Lissy led the rediscovery with his recently published biography, “‘There Is a Magic to This Child Prodigy!’ Constanze Geiger: Composer, Pianist, Actress From Vienna.”

Geiger began performing her own compositions from the piano when she was 8, winning attention from the press in Vienna and abroad. Johann Strauss — father and son — both conducted her waltzes at balls in Vienna and dedicated their own works to the young star. The “Ferdinandus Waltz” was led by the elder Strauss in Vienna in 1848.

Among her works is a wedding march for the empress-to-be, Elisabeth, when she arrived with Emperor Franz Joseph I in Nussdorf (now a suburb of Vienna) in 1854.

ImageAn illustration of the arrival of the empress-to-be, Elisabeth, for her wedding to Emperor Franz Joseph I. Geiger wrote a wedding march in honor of the occasion.Credit...Hulton Archive/Getty Images

While Geiger’s dance music emerged after the Strauss dynasty’s prolific output, she also forged her own path. “Every portion of her waltzes is something special,” Lissy said in an interview. He compared them to pralines, a particularly refined confection.

Overall, violent crime fell 3 percent and property crime fell 2.6 percent in 2023, with burglaries down 7.6 percent and larceny down 4.4 percent. Car thefts, though, continue to be an exception, rising more than 12 percent from the year before.

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