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Johann Strauss the Elder

Johann Strauss the Elder (1804-1849)

Childhood and Marriage

Johann Strauss, from an early age showed no interest in music, but began his career in 1817 as a bookbinder and this same year took violin lessons and learned music theory from Ignaz von Seyfried. Johann Strauss the Elder, became very talented and joined a short time as a violist to Joseph Lanner, who had founded with the Brothers Drahanek a trio. Strauss befriended his later competitors Lanner quickly.
On September 1, 1825, Strauss separated from Lanner Orchestra. Approximately two and a half years earlier he had met Anna Streim, the daughter of the host “The Red Rooster” in Lichtenthal.

On July 11, 1825 Strauss married the young girl in the September 1, 1825, Strauss separated from Lanner Orchestra. Approximately two and a half years earlier he had met Anna Streim met, the daughter of the host “The Red Rooster” in Lichtenthal. On July 11, 1825 Strauss married the young girl in the Lichtenthal parish church, though his financial situation at the time he was very poor.

To travel

In 1833 Strauss undertook a first concert tour in Pest, where he was celebrated with enthusiasm. However, this trip was preceded by a Unrühmlichkeit, Strauss had nevertheless already been invited to Budapest, but was not the only obey what was taken from him very ill and some derisive comments brought into the Tagblättern. However, the Vienna correspondent of a Hungarian newspaper could settle this resentment by publishing an article and Strauss’ no show-founded with prior commitments.

The success in Pest encouraged Strauss to further travel, and so he went to All Souls of the following year with his band on their way to Berlin in order to install in the Royal Concert Hall and the Königstädter theater, of course, also with the greatest success, which is why Strauss even several times in could give concerts royal-Prussian castle. It so happened that when one of these events sometimes the Emperor of Russia was present and so impressed with his wife that he animated Strauss to a concert tour to St. Petersburg what Strauss but has not been possible because of his contract with Scherzer in Vienna. On his return from Berlin to Vienna, he was in Leipzig, Dresden and Prague concerts. In the same year he was appointed conductor of the first citizen regiment.

Three months after the wedding, on 25 October 1825 Anna gave birth to a son, who named Johann. The young family then lived in a small apartment (Lerchenfelderstrasse 15, Vienna.) Strauss started to play in an orchestra to earn his keep, this is were he wrote wrote his first waltz that succeeded to the public: The “Täuberl waltz” was enthusiastically received by the audience, and the applause was tremendous, and Strauss became so overnight celebrity.

It was the historical moment of the “Lannerianer” and “Straussian” split the Viennese population, and, as Strauss has now to Lanners rivals. An important milestone in Strauss’ career was taking over the musical line in time about the country’s borders famous Establishment Sperl in Leopoldstadt. The owner Scherzer had bouquet to win the competition for the post. Strauss had an excellent orchestra, which he – a led with a firm hand, and from which he demanded the highest discipline. Strauss was in a short time one of the most famous and prestigious personalities of the Viennese music scene, and so the Sperl was certainly the very first address of pleasure in the imperial city.

Although Strauss was always busy with his commitments and obligations, he was casually eager to expand his music theoretical knowledge. So he took diligently teaching at the famous music theorist Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried and also took further violin lessons. But his recent successes abroad held Strauss not long in Vienna.
In September 1835, he set out with his orchestra again on the trip to Germany and has performed in Munich, Augsburg, Ulm, Stuttgart, Heilbronn, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, Offenbach, Hanau, Nuremberg, Regensburg and Passau. Everywhere left behind the “King of cheerfulness” greatest enthusiasm; as in another trip the following year to Prague, Dresden, Leipzig, Halle, Magdeburg, Braunschweig, Hannover, Hamburg, Bremen, Oldenburg, Osnabrück, Münster, Dusseldorf, Amsterdam, The Hague, Cologne, Aachen, Liege, Brussels, Bonn, Mainz, Frankfurt, Würzburg and Regensburg.

In the spring of 1937 Strauss was planning an even bigger tour, a tour of France and London. He left on October 4 that year from Vienna with its 18-strong orchestra and was adopted with cheers. The trip took about the time being already known stations like Munich, Ulm and Stuttgart, from where it then went on to Strasbourg and Paris. In the French capital Strauss overcame the first time a bigger fright, because the city was waiting with famous and acclaimed masters on, some of whom were in the audience, as Strauss was the first concert in the Gymnase Musical: Meyerbeer, Auber, Cherubini, Adam, Musard and other. Strauss’ performance garnered the usual thunderous applause.

Gradually he and his orchestra became homesickness for their beautiful Vienna, but with contracts signed they had little hope to return in that year. In England Strauss continued to Reading, Manchester, Leicester, Derby, Sheffield, Nottingham, Halifax, York, Hull, Newcastle, Carlisle, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. The Scottish climate made Strauss unwell and caught a cold. The following concerts he conducted with less energy, and gradually he came to the realization that he can no longer endure in the mass, the long trip and he had to make the return journey for better or worse.

In the following four weeks, he returned to Vienna and recovered so far that he could give concerts again. Tirelessly but nevertheless visibly chipped, he conducted during the carnival in spring 1839 on numerous stages. On the last day of the Carnival season Strauss headed the music ball, watched by the Russian ambassador. At the end of the concert, he collapsed unconscious and was taken to his apartment. The doctors diagnosed kidney ulcers which had Strauss tormented for some time. But again, Strauss made a full recovery so he could proceed to the conductor’s podium again. Soon he was like new again and stayed the next two years in Vienna.

Sickness and death

Back in Vienna after a lenthy tour of Germany, Strauss played on as usual. On September 16, 1849, he has performed in Ungers Casino, but that day he felt very bad and could lead the four-hour program only with great effort over. He ignored his weakened state and played three days later in the Sperl. For an honorary occasion favor to Radetzky on September 22, the Strauss-chapel was dedicated, he soon had a high fever and became bedridden and died in 1849. 

Johann Strauss the Elder grave Zentralfriedhof, Central Cemetery, Simmeringer Hauptstraße 234, 1110 Wien, Austria

Johann Strauss the Elder grave
Zentralfriedhof, Central Cemetery, Simmeringer Hauptstraße 234, 1110 Wien, Austria

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