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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Johann Strauss II: Kaiserwalzer, Op. 437 - Rosen aus dem Süden Op. 388 - An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314
San Juan Symphony Orchestra Argentina
Klassik - Erschienen bei VDE-GALLO am 23.08.2021
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Valses de Vienne (transcr. piano à 4 mains)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Claves Records am 01.01.1989
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Voices of Spring: The Greatest Classical Waltzes & Dances Inspired by Nature & Springtime
Klassik - Erschienen bei Dream Collection am 21.04.2017
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Viennese Waltz of Johann Strauss II
Klassik - Erschienen bei Twenty20 Records am 27.11.2012
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100 Ladies Classics
Klassik - Erschienen bei Dream Collection am 09.06.2015
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New Year's Gala
Strauss Festival Orchester Wien
Klassik - Erschienen bei HELLO STAGE am 22.09.2017
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Johann Strauss II - Great Recordings
Klassik - Erschienen bei UME - Global Clearing House am 29.05.2021
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Squid Game Music - Classical
Joseph Haydn, Pyotr Illitch Tchaïkovski, Johann Strauss II
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Johann Strauss, Vol. II: The Gypsy Baron - The Bat
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New Year's Day - Classical Music
Klassik - Erschienen bei UME - Global Clearing House am 01.01.2021
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Strauss: By the Beautiful Blue Danube, Op. 314
American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein
Klassik - Erschienen bei American Symphony Orchestra am 21.05.2014
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Happy New Year - Classical Music
Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II
Klassik - Erschienen bei UME - Global Clearing House am 31.12.2021
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Valses célèbres - Famous Waltzes
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Waltz into 2021
Johann Strauss II, Pyotr Illitch Tchaïkovski, Frédéric Chopin
Klassik - Erschienen bei UME - Global Clearing House am 26.12.2020
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100 Must-Have Freaky Classics
Klassik - Erschienen bei Cobra Entertainment LLC am 09.10.2015
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Johann Strauss II - An der schönen blauen Donau
Klassik - Erschienen bei UME - Global Clearing House am 08.06.2022
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Strauss: Egyptischer Marsch (Egyptian March), Op. 335 (Digitally Remastered)
Vienna Volksoper Orchestra, Peter Falk
Klassik - Erschienen bei EMG Classical am 29.06.2014
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50 Must-Have Gardening Classics
Klassik - Erschienen bei Cobra Entertainment LLC am 04.03.2014
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J. Strauss II - His Works
Klassik - Erschienen bei UME - Global Clearing House am 18.07.2020
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Strauss: Frühlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring), Op. 410 (Digitally Remastered)
Vienna Volksoper Orchestra, Peter Falk
Klassik - Erschienen bei EMG Classical am 29.06.2014
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Concert du Nouvel An - Les plus belles valses de Strauss
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 29.12.2023
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