Johann Strauss I

Johann Strauss I lived for only 45 years, but in a short, energetic career he transformed popular music in Europe and founded a dynasty of “Waltz Kings” whose music would come to define 19th-century Vienna. Orphaned in early childhood, he made his fortune as a violinist in Vienna’s dance orchestras and (from 1825) as leader of his own increasingly successful band. Strauss’ irresistibly tuneful waltzes, polkas, quadrilles and marches (as well as his own charisma as a performer) made him a Europe-wide celebrity, and he toured with his orchestra to Germany, France and the UK. His personal life was less triumphant. He was estranged from his gifted son Johann II—whose celebrity, after a sensational debut in 1844, would come to eclipse his own. But his compositions (nearly 300 in total) have kept his name alive: fresh, melodious mini-masterpieces such as the Champagner-Walzer, Sperl-Galopp and—most famous of all—the Radetzky March, composed in 1848 just a year before Strauss’ untimely death from scarlet fever.