In 1885 Carl Michael Ziehrer had arrived in “Austro-Hungarian band heaven”, as he had been appointed director of the band of Infantry Regiment Hoch- und Deutschmeister No. 4 in September of that year. He in fact occupied this position until 1893. In that office he succeeded to many a highly esteemed predecessor such as Philipp Fahrbach, Sen.

This appointment also implied that Ziehrer’s music automatically was attributed a higher “quality rating”. Two years later, in January 1887, his first g...