Johann Strauss (son)
Johann Baptist Strauss II (Neubau, October 25, 1825-Vienna, June 3, 1899) was an Austrian composer best known for his waltzes, such as The Blue Danube. Son of the composer Johann Strauss and brother of the composers Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss, Johann is the most famous of the Strauss family. He was known in his lifetime as "the king of the waltz" and it was to him that the popularity of the waltz in 19th century Vienna was largely due. XIX . He revolutionized it, elevating it from a peasant dance to one of entertainment fit for the Habsburg Imperial Court. His works enjoy greater popularity than those of his predecessors, such as his father and Josef Lanner. Some of his polkas and marches are also well known, as is his operetta Die Fledermaus ( The Bat ).
Biography
Early Years
The only family member who supported him was his mother. On the contrary, when discovered by his father, Johann would remember "an unpleasant and violent scene" and that his father "did not want to know anything about his musical plans." It seems that instead of preventing Strauss from becoming his rival, his father wanted to remove his son from the rigors of life as a musician. It was then that Strauss senior left the family and found a lover, Emilie Trampusch, when Johann was 17 years old and had decided to fully concentrate on a career as a composer with the help of his mother.
Strauss then began studying counterpoint and harmony with Professor Joachim Hoffmann, who owned a private music school. His talent was also recognized by the composer Josef Drechsler (also spelled Drexler), who taught him harmony exercises. His other violin teacher was Anton Kollmann, repétiteur of the ballet of the Vienna Court Opera. Armed with this, on the same day that her mother had filed for divorce from her husband, he appeared before the Viennese authorities to perform in public. He initially formed a small orchestra, hiring some musicians from the Zur Stadt Belgrad tavern.
Johann Strauss I's influence in various entertainment establishments meant that many of them were wary of offering the young Strauss a contract, fearing the father's anger. Strauss Jr. was able to persuade the Casino Dommayer in Hietzing, Vienna, to make his debut. The local press was quick to report the Strauss vs. Strauss, father-son rivalry. Strauss Sr., enraged at his son and at the disobedience of the owner, refused to play ever again at the Dommayer Casino, which had been the scene of his previous triumphs.
Strauss encountered many difficulties in his early years as a musician, but soon gained a music-loving audience, having accepted commissions to perform outside of Vienna. The first major recognition for the young composer was the position of Kapellmeister of the 2nd Vienna Citizens Regiment, which had become vacant after the death of Josef Lanner two years earlier. Vienna was devastated by a bourgeois revolution on February 24, 1848, and the rivalry between father and son became much more evident.
Johann decided to support the revolutionaries, as the titles of two works dating from this period make clear, the waltzes Freiheitslieder (Freedom Songs) op. 52 and Burschenlieder (Songs of the Youth) op. 55, as well as the marches March Revolutions op. 54 and the agitated March of the Students op. 56. This decision proved to be unfavorable to him professionally, as Austrian royalty twice denied him the much-coveted position of KK Hofballmusikdirecktor (Musical Director of the Court Ball), a position that was given to Johann I in recognition of his musical contributions. On the other hand, the young Strauss was also arrested by the Viennese authorities for playing "La Marseillaise" in public, stirring up revolutionary sentiments, but was later acquitted. Shortly after his acquittal, he composed the polka Geißelhiebe (Whipping ) op. 60, which contains elements of "La Marseillaise" in his "Trio", as a musical section in response to his arrest. Strauss senior remained loyal to the Danube monarchy and composed his Radetzky March op. 228 dedicated to Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz which would become his best known composition.
When Strauss senior died of scarlet fever in Vienna in 1849, the younger Strauss merged both orchestras and toured extensively. Later, he would also compose a series of patriotic marches dedicated to the monarch Franz Josef I, such as the Kaiser Franz-Josef Marsch ( March of the Emperor Franz Josef ) op. 67 and the Kaiser Franz Josef Rettungs Jubel-Marsch (Joyful March for the Salvation of Emperor Franz Josef) op. 126, probably to ingratiate himself with the new monarch who ascended the throne of Austria after the Revolution of 1848.
Career Advancement
He eventually surpassed his father's fame, and became one of the most popular waltz composers of his day, touring Austria, Poland and Germany with his orchestra. It would be customary for the public to see only one performance before he quickly moved on to another venue. It would be the first and last performance in each of those places, and on whose plaques they would proudly proclaim "Heut Spielt der Strauss!" or "Today it's Strauss!"
He also made visits to Russia, where he performed in Pavlovsk and wrote several compositions, which he later retitled to fit the Viennese audience; to Britain where he performed with his first wife Hetty Treffz, at Covent Garden, to France, Italy and later to the United States in the 1870s, where he took part in the Boston Festival at the invitation of bandmaster Patrick Gilmore and he was the main conductor in the Monster Concert of more than 1000 musicians, in which he performed his waltz The Blue Danube op. 314, among other highly successful pieces.
Among the most popular dance pieces Strauss wrote in this period are the waltzes Sängerfahrten op. 41, Liebeslieder (Love Songs) op. 114, Nachtfalter (Night Butterfly) op. 157, Accelerationen (Accelerations) op. 234 and the polkas Annen (of Anne) op. 117 and Tritsch-Tratsch op. 214.
Marriages
He married the singer Hetty Treffz in 1862 and applied for the title of Musical Director of the Court Ball, a position he attained in 1863, after being denied several times because of his frequent friction with local authorities. His participation in the Court Ball meant that his works would now be heard by royalty. His second wife, Angelika Dittrich (actress), whom he married in 1878, was not a fervent supporter of his music and the difference in age and opinions, and especially her indiscretion, led Johann to ask her The divorce.
Strauss was not granted an annulment by the Catholic Church and therefore changed his religion and nationality and became a citizen of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha on January 28, 1887. Strauss sought solace in his third wife, Adele (whom he married on 15 August 1882) and in his later years his creative talents flowed, resulting in much of it good music, such as is found in the operettas Der Zigeunerbaron and Waldmeister and the waltzes Kaiser-Walzer op. 437, Kaiser Jubiläum op. 434, Märchen aus dem Orient op. 444 and Klug Gretelein op. 462.
Adele, like Strauss's grandfather, was of Jewish origin, a fact the Nazis covered up.
Family music business
After creating his first orchestra before his father's death, he founded many others that would play in various entertainment and dance venues, such as the "Sperl" and the "Apollo", to whom he dedicated several pieces with his names to commemorate their first performances. Later, he accepted commissions to play in Russia for Archduke Michael and Tsar Alexander II, especially in Pavlovsk, where a new railway line had been built. When the errands became too many for him to attend to alone, he tried to convince his brothers Josef and Eduard to fill in for him in his absence, either because of his poor health or his busy schedule. In 1853, he even had to enter a sanatorium, since he suffered from chills and suffered from neuralgia. Eager that the family business would not collapse, mother Anna Strauss helped convince the reluctant Josef to take over as head of the Strauss orchestra. The Viennese welcomed both brothers and finally had to admit that "Josef was the most talented of the two, I am simply the most popular." Josef left his own mark with his own waltzes, and this new rivalry was very conducive to the development of the waltz. Johann Strauss II proceeded to cement his position as "king of the waltz" with his exquisite waltz The Blue Danube op. 314, which was born as a choral waltz with a text written by a local poet.
The highlight of the Strauss triumvirate is manifested in the Perpetual Music Concerto in 1860, where his apt musical joke Perpetuum Mobile op. 257 was performed by the three brothers leading three different orchestras. At the same time, the three Strauss brothers also organized numerous activities during their concerts at the Volksgarten in Vienna, where the public could participate. For example, a new piece was performed and the audience was invited to guess which of the three had composed it.
Rivals and musical admirers
Although the most in-demand composer of dance music was Johann Strauss between 1860 and 1890, he had stiff competition from Karl Michael Ziehrer and Émile Waldteufel; with the second he competed from Paris. Phillip Fahrbach also denied the young Strauss the position of Music Director of the Court Ball when he first applied for the position. The German composer Jacques Offenbach, who became famous in Paris, also challenged Strauss in the field of operetta. Later, the appearance of operetta master Franz Lehár ushered in Vienna's Silver Age of this genre and displaced Strauss's position in the world of operetta.
Johann was admired by other prominent composers. Richard Wagner once admitted that he loved the waltz & # 34;Wine, Women and Songs, Op. 333 & # 34;. Richard Strauss (not related to the family) when composing his Rose Knight waltzes said of Johann Strauss Jr.: "How could I forget the smiling genius of Vienna?"
Johannes Brahms was a personal friend, to whom Strauss dedicated his waltz Seid umschlungen, Millionen! (Hug one another, millions!), Op. 443, inspired by the Ode to Joy by Friedrich Schiller. A story is told in the biographies of both men: Strauss's daughter approached Brahms with the intention of asking for his autograph. It was usual for composers to write a few bars of his best-known music and sign his name. Brahms, however, wrote a few bars of Strauss's best-known waltzes and then wrote: "Unfortunately, NOT by Johannes Brahms."
Work
For the theater
Most of Strauss's operettas, however, have not had enduring success when compared to his dance pieces, with much of the success credited to Die Fledermaus (The Bat), A Night in Venice and The Gypsy Baron. Despite the lack of popularity of his operettas, there are many pieces taken from them that were warmly received, such as the "Waltz Cagliostro"; op. 370 from the operetta Cagliostro in Vienna, the waltz "Oh, beautiful May" op. 375 (Prince Methuselah), the waltz Rosas del Sur op. 388 (The Queen's Lace Handkerchief) and the Kiss Waltz op. 400 (The Funny War). He also wrote an opera, Ritter Pásmán , which has numerous flaws in the libretto, but many attribute his failure to the use of waltzes and polkas, which would indicate that he was incapable of writing serious music. Indeed, for his third and most successful operetta of all time, Die Fledermaus (The Bat) of 1874, Vienna music critics prophesied "that the motif of the melodies would be waltzes and polkas." However, his greatest critic and ironically staunch defender of him Eduard Hanslick wrote at the time of Strauss's death in 1899 that his disappearance would spell the end of happy times in Vienna.
Johann Strauss died of pneumonia in Vienna on June 3, 1899 at the age of 73 and was buried in the Vienna Zentralfriedhof (Vienna Central Cemetery). At the time of his death, he was working on his ballet Aschenbrödel ( Cinderella ).
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Legacy
The music of Johann Strauss Jr. is regularly performed at the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's New Year's Concert, as a result of the efforts of Clemens Krauss who conducted a special program dedicated to Strauss in 1929 with the Viennese orchestra. Several Strauss players, such as Willi Boskovsky, continued the tradition of conducting violin in hand as was customary in the Strauss family, as well as Herbert von Karajan and Riccardo Muti. In addition, the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra, which was formed in 1966, pays tribute to him during the tours of this well-known orchestra.
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