Born in 1825 in Vienna, Johann Strauss exhibited unique skills in his early childhood. It was in fact against wishes of his father who was averse to any career in music for all his three sons. His father liked to see him as a banker but the younger Strauss nurtured his own ideas.
The first and foremost original and popular composer in the classical genres belonging to home town Viennese waltz and Viennese operetta is Johann Strauss, Jr. Familiar to the relaxed fans of radio, film and television The Blue Danube Waltz is his most famous work in the previous category. It is among the most widely played and arranged pieces of its time.
Johann Strauss, Jr. took secret lessons from a player belonging to his father’s band when he was very young. His father disowned his family and went away when Strauss was 17. This incident enabled Strauss to take up a serious study without any hurdle. His mother was always positive and supported Strauss. She too was an excellent amateur violinist. Time was ripe for Strauss to continue studies in theory under Joseph Drechsler and violin lessons from Anton Kohlmann. Johann conducted his first concert in 1844. He formed his... show more

Born in 1825 in Vienna, Johann Strauss exhibited unique skills in his early childhood. It was in fact against wishes of his father who was averse to any career in music for all his three sons. His father liked to see him as a banker but the younger Strauss nurtured his own ideas.
The first and foremost original and popular composer in the classical genres belonging to home town Viennese waltz and Viennese operetta is Johann Strauss, Jr. Familiar to the relaxed fans of radio, film and television The Blue Danube Waltz is his most famous work in the previous category. It is among the most widely played and arranged pieces of its time.
Johann Strauss, Jr. took secret lessons from a player belonging to his father’s band when he was very young. His father disowned his family and went away when Strauss was 17. This incident enabled Strauss to take up a serious study without any hurdle. His mother was always positive and supported Strauss. She too was an excellent amateur violinist. Time was ripe for Strauss to continue studies in theory under Joseph Drechsler and violin lessons from Anton Kohlmann. Johann conducted his first concert in 1844. He formed his own band after a year the move which made him compete with his father’s orchestra. For performing his ensemble, and even conducting his father’s works, he was writing his own quadrilles, mazurkas, polkas and waltzes. The press showered encomiums on him. He was made as honorary Bandmaster of the 2nd Vienna Citizen’s Regiment in 1845. He began composing for the Vienna Men’s Choral Association in 1847. Incidentally, his father was the bandmaster of the 1st regiment.
Johann Strauss, Jr. saw real success coming in from 1849 after Johann Strauss, Sr. died. Johann Jr. united his own with his father’s orchestra executing his father’s contracts. For the next few years his profession sailed smoothly. He fell ill in 1853 and had to hand over the conducting duties to Josef, his younger brother for six months. He regained health and was back to work both conducting and composing activities. In due course, composers like Brahms, Wagner and Verdi started admiring him for his outward boundless imagination for using melodies.
In 1862 Strauss got married to singer Henriette “Jetty” Treffz and both settled in Hietzing. “Jetty” inspired him a lot and became his business manager. She drew him toward operetta at the time when Viennese theater operators had become weary of the Offenbach’s works. In 1871 his first Indigo und die vierzig Rauber appeared. Three years later, Eine Nacht in Venedig, his most celebrated opera was staged (1883). His only other international hits were Eine Nacht in Venedig and Der Zigeunerbaron (1885).

Strauss tasted success in 1870 but also had to grieve over the deaths of his mother and brother Joseph in the same year. Strauss went to United States in 1872. He led concerts in Boston and New York which were very successful. His wife suddenly succumbed to heart attack in 1878. Six weeks later he married a much-younger Angelika Dittrich, an actress. It was a foolish move of Strauss though he was a shattered man after his wife’s death. The remarriage might have helped Strauss immediately after the death of his wife to some extent, but it lasted only for four years.
Strauss was a Roman catholic but the church was reluctant to recognize his divorce. Strauss abandoned the church and gave up his Austrian citizenship to marry Adele Deutsch. He had lived with his new wife for a long period before their marriage. Much like his first wife, his new wife also appeared to have inspired him.Strauss was active and reasonably productive in his last years. He got a respiratory problem which led into pneumonia when he was working on a ballet Cinderella. And he died in 1899.
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