Johann Strauss the Elder (1804-1849)

Childhood and Marriage

Johann Strauss, from an early age, showed no interest in music, but he began his career in 1817 as a bookbinder. This same year, he 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 a trio with the Brothers Drahanek. Strauss befriended his later competitor, Lanner, quickly.

On September 1, 1825, Strauss separated from Lanner Orchestra. Approximately two and a half years earlier, he met Anna Streim, the daughter of the host "The Red Rooster" in Lichtenthal.?

On July 11, 1825, Strauss married the young girl. 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 a young girl in the Lichtenthal parish church, though his financial situation was deplorable.

To travel

In 1833, Strauss undertook a first concert tour in Pest, where he was celebrated enthusiastically. However, this trip was preceded by a Unrühmlichkeit; Strauss had nevertheless already been invited to Budapest but was not the only one to obey what was taken from him very ill and some derisive comments were brought into the Tagbl?ttern. However, the Vienna correspondent of a Hungarian newspaper could settle this resentment by publishing an article, and Strauss did not show founded with prior commitments.

The success in Pest encouraged Strauss to travel further. 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 K?nigst?dter theatre, of course, also with the most tremendous 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, which Strauss did but was impossible because of his contract with Scherzer in Vienna. He was in Leipzig, Dresden and Prague concerts on his return from Berlin to Vienna. The same year, he was appointed conductor of the first citizen regiment.

Three months after the wedding, on October 25, 1825, Anna gave birth to a son 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, where he wrote his first waltz that succeeded in the public. The audience enthusiastically received the " T?uberl waltz, " and the applause was tremendous. Strauss became an overnight celebrity.

It was the historical moment when the "Lannerianer" and "Straussian" split the Viennese population and, as Strauss has now, Lanners rivals. A significant milestone in Strauss' career was taking over the musical line in time about the country's borders and the famous Establishment of Sperl in Leopoldstadt. The owner, Scherzer, had a bouquet to win the competition for the post. Strauss had an excellent orchestra, which he - 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. So, the Sperl was undoubtedly 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 theoretical knowledge of music. So he diligently taught at the famous music theorist Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried and also took further violin lessons. However, his recent successes abroad held Strauss short in Vienna.

In September 1835, he set out with his orchestra again on a trip to Germany. He performed in Munich, Augsburg, Ulm, Stuttgart, Heilbronn, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, Offenbach, Hanau, Nuremberg, Regensburg and Passau. He was everywhere left behind the "King of cheerfulness" most extraordinary 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 planned an even more extensive 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 went to Strasbourg and Paris. In the French capital, Strauss overcame the first time a more significant fright because the city was waiting with famous and acclaimed masters, some of whom were in the audience, as Strauss was the first concert in the Gymnase Musical: Meyerbeer, Auber, Cherubini, Adam, Mustard and other. Strauss' performance garnered the usual thunderous applause.

Gradually, he and his orchestra became homesick for their beautiful Vienna, but with contracts signed, they had little hope to return that year. Strauss continued to Reading, Manchester, Leicester, Derby, Sheffield, Nottingham, Halifax, York, Hull, Newcastle, Carlisle, Edinburgh, and Glasgow in England. The Scottish climate made Strauss unwell, and they caught a cold. The following concerts he conducted with less energy, and gradually, he came to the realization that he could no longer endure 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 enough to give concerts. Tirelessly but visibly chipped, he conducted during the carnival in the spring of 1839 on numerous stages. On the last day of the Carnival season, Strauss headed the music ball, which the Russian ambassador watched. 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. However, Strauss made a full recovery again so he could proceed to the conductor's podium again. Soon, he was like new again and stayed in Vienna for the next two years.

Sickness and death

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