Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss, Jr. is the first truly well-known composer in those classical genres particular to his hometown, the Viennese waltz and Viennese operetta. The Blue Danube Waltz is not only the most popular of his works in the former category, but is among the most widely played and arranged pieces of its time, known to the most casual listener today from many radio, film and television uses of it.
Johann Strauss, Jr. was born in Vienna on October 25, 1825. He showed remarkable skills early in his childhood, despite his father's opposition to any career in music for any of his three sons. Johann, Sr. wanted him to become a banker, but the younger Strauss had his own ideas, taking violin lessons in secret from a player in his father's band. When Strauss was 17 his father left the family, thus allowing him to begin serious study without encumbrance. His mother, a good amateur violinist who had always encouraged him, remained supportive. Strauss now studied theory with Joseph Drechsler and took violin lessons from Anton Kohlmann. In 1844 young Johann led his first concert and a year later formed his own band, thereby competing with his father's orchestra. He was also writing his own quadrilles, mazurkas, polkas, and waltzes for performance by his ensemble, even conducting works by his father, and receiving praise from the press. He was given the honorary position of Bandmaster of the 2nd Vienna Citizens' Regiment (his father was bandmaster of the 1st regiment) in 1845, and in 1847 began composing for the Vienna Men's Choral Association.
His real success began in 1849 after Johann Strauss, Sr. died. Johann, Jr. merged his father's orchestra with his own and took up his father's contracts. His career moved along smoothly for the next several years, but in 1853 he became seriously ill and turned over conducting duties to his younger brother, Josef, for six months. After his recovery he resumed fully both his conducting and his composing activities, eventually gaining the respect of such composers as Brahms, Wagner, and Verdi for his seemingly unlimited imagination for using melodies.
Strauss married singer Henriette "Jetty" Treffz in August 1862, and they settled in Hietzing. Thereafter, she became his business manager and apparently a great inspiration, drawing him toward operetta, just as Viennese theater operators were becoming tired of the works of Offenbach. His first, Indigo und die vierzig Räuber, came in 1871, and his most famous, Die Fledermaus, was staged three years later with great success. Eine Nacht in Venedig (1883) and Der Zigeunerbaron (1885) were his only other international operetta hits.
In 1872, he traveled to the United States and led highly successful concerts in Boston and New York. For all the success that came in the 1870s for Strauss, there was also much grief: his mother and brother Josef died in 1870, and his wife died suddenly of a heart attack in 1878. Her death devastated him, and the suddenly helpless composer unwisely married the much-younger actress Angelika Dittrich, six weeks later. The marriage lasted only four years, though it may have saved the composer from personal disaster in the months following his wife's death.
Strauss, a Roman Catholic, left the church and had to give up his Austrian citizenship to marry Adele Deutsch in 1887, owing to the Church's unwillingness to recognize his divorce. His new wife, with whom he had lived for a long period before their marriage, seemed to inspire him much like his first wife. In his last years, Strauss remained quite productive and active. He was working on a ballet, Cinderella, when he developed a respiratory ailment which grew into pneumonia. He died on June 3, 1899.
© Robert Cummings /TiVo
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All (All-Time Greatest Moments)
Classical - Released by Unchained Melodie on 1 Oct 2012
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Strauss Through the Ages
Classical - Released by Unchained Melodie on 28 Feb 2011
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Legendary Conductor
Classical - Released by Unchained Melodie on 1 Nov 2013
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J. Strauss II - On the Beautiful Blue Danube
Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Victor Desarzens
Classical - Released by Violet Hill Records on 11 Jun 2012
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J. Strauss II - Artist's Life Waltz
The Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Joseph Leo Gruber
Classical - Released by Violet Hill Records on 11 Jun 2012
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Strauss - All-Time Greatest Moments
Classical - Released by Unchained Melodie on 1 Dec 2010
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Strauss Waltzes
Hans-Jurgen Walther, The Danube Strings
Classical - Released by Sunday Club Records on 27 Feb 2014
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Strauss II - Die Fledermaus: Du und Du, Op. 367 - Waltz
Arturo Basile, The Orchestra of the Teatro Communale of Bologna
Classical - Released by Violet Hill Records on 21 May 2012
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Strauss Through the Years
St. Martin's Symphony of London, Karl Brazda
Classical - Released by Unchained Melodie on 15 Mar 2014
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Strauss II: Thunder and Lightning - Polka, Op. 324
Herbert von Karajan, The Philharmonia Orchestra
Classical - Released by Sunday Club Records on 8 Apr 2013
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The Music of Johann Strauss II
Wiener Sängerknaben, The Vienna Concert Orchestra
Classical - Released by Sunday Club Records on 12 Mar 2014
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Die Fledermaus
Vilem Tausky, The Sadler's Wells Opera Company and Orchestra
Opera - Released by Sunday Club Records on 13 Jan 2014
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Strauss II: The Blue Danube
Sir John Barbirolli, The Hallé Orchestra
Classical - Released by Sunday Club Records on 25 Nov 2013
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Strauss II: Tritsch-Tratsch, Polka, Op. 214
Herbert von Karajan, The Philharmonia Orchestra
Classical - Released by Sunday Club Records on 8 Apr 2013
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Strauss - The Genius Collection
St. Martin's Symphony of London
Classical - Released by Unchained Melodie on 1 Aug 2012
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J. Strauss II - Tritsch-Tratsch Polka, Op. 214
Alexander Gibson, The New Symphony Orchestra Of London
Classical - Released by Violet Hill Records on 8 Jun 2012
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J. Strauss II: Thunder and Lightning Polka
The New Symphony Orchestra of London, Alexander Gibson
Classical - Released by Violet Hill Records on 6 Jun 2012
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Strauss Ball in Vienna: Waltzes and Polkas
Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Hans Swarowsky
Classical - Released by Sunday Club Records on 6 Jun 2014
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Thunder and Lightning (Electronic Version)
Johann Strauss II, Franz Strauss, Nologo
Electronic - Released by Electro Roma on 20 Jun 2022
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A Saga Night in Vienna with Johann Strauss II
Otto Dobrindt, The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Classical - Released by Sunday Club Records on 17 Jan 2014
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J. Strauss II - Tales from the Vienna Woods Waltz
The Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Joseph Leo Gruber
Classical - Released by Violet Hill Records on 11 Jun 2012
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