Strauss II, J.: Waltzes, Polkas, Marches And Overtures, Vol. 4

Various Artists

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Cat No: 8550339

Release Date: 12 January 2000

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099533928

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: STRAUSS II, J.

Description
Johann Strauss II (1825 - 1899)To many the Strauss family has been seen as the epitome ofthe golden age of Vienna, the city that set Europe dancing, with its waltzes and polkas.As the capital of an Empire that embraced the most musical parts of Europe, Bohemia,Slovakia and Hungary, as well as a good part of Northern Italy and the German-speakingpeoples closer to hand, Vienna proved the most fertile ground for music that the world hasever known. One reason for this may lie in the inevitable cross-fertilisation of races andcultures, of which the Strauss family provides an example.The firstrecorded member of the family was Johann Michael Strauss, a native of the Hungarian townof Ofen, who moved to Vienna in the service of Count Franz von Roggendorff in 1750. Jewishin origin, Johann Michael became a Christian and settled in the city as an upholsterer.His second child, Franz Strauss, married the daughter of a coachman and worked as a waiterbefore taking the tenancy of a small drinking-house, Zum heiligen Florian, in theLeopoldstadt district of the city .It was here, on 14th March, 1804, that Johann Straussthe elder, founder of the Strauss musical dynasty, was born.On thedeath of his father in 1816, Johann Strauss was apprenticed by his guardian to abook-binder. Even at this period he earned a living for himself playing the viola in aband run by the somewhat disreputable violinist Michael Pamer. In 1819 he joined a rivalband started by the Pamer violinist Josef Lanner: in 1824 he became second conductor underLanner, and the following year established his own orchestra. He married on 11th July,1825: on 25th October his first son was born and named after his father.The youngerJohann Strauss, even more prolific and successful than his father, studied music at firstby stealth, until his father abandoned the family in favour of his mistress in 1842. Twoyears later he launched his own dance orchestra and went on to unparallelled success, inwhich he compelled his younger brothers to share, although all three of them had beenoriginally destined for other professions. In 1863 Johann Strauss was appointed ImperialMusic Director for the balls held at court, a position he relinquished in 1871, when hewas succeeded by his youngest brother, Eduard. His career took him abroad, to London,Paris, Budapest and regularly to the Russian Vauxhall at Pavlovsk. For the theatre hewrote a series of operettas, from Indigo and the Forty Thieves in 1871 and Die Fledermausthree years later to the final Goddess of Reason in 1897. By the time of his death in 1899Strauss had written some 500 pieces of music, waltzes, polkas, quadrilles and stage works,evidence of prolific talent and an enormous capacity for work.The Kaiserwalzer (Emperor Waltz) has a cleverly ambiguoustitle. The publisher Simrock suggested this as a replacement for the original Hand inHand, celebrating the meeting of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and the Austrian Emperor in1889. It seemed that the new title might appea
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