Strauss ~ The Blue Danube Waltz

Johann Strauss - His Life and Music

 

Johann Strauss, Jr., was born on October 25, 1825 in Vienna and passed away also there on June 3, 1899. He was the eldest son of Johann Strauss and is deservedly known as the "King of Waltz". His father didn't want his ten children to choose music at their career. Johann Strauss, Jr. worked as a bank clerk, but learned violin play secretly and studied composing.

In 1844, Strauss engaged to direct summer concerts in Petropaulovsky Park in Saint Petersburg in Russia for ten years. As a conductor o Austrian court bals from 1863-1872, he composed nearly 400 waltzes, which have come to epitomize Viennese gaiety and sentiment. Some of his well-known waltzes are "The Blue Danube", "Roses from the South", the great "Emperor Waltz" or "Tales from the Vienna Woods". It's beloved, wherever music is played, as well as Strauss' polkas and other dances.

Very late Strauss came in contact with the operetta, but a certain dramatic lyric mostly lacked. Only his third operetta "The Bat" (1874) became a world success.

Strauss was friend and admirer of Richard Wagner, who like Johannes Brahms and other composers including Arnold Schoenberg, were what we should now call "fans" of Strauss, recognizing a supreme master of a genre who composes with style, elegance and taste.