Johann Strauss.

Johann Strauss II defied his father by studying music in secret with the orchestra’s first violinist. He was born Johann Baptist Strauss II on October 25, 1825, in Sankt Ulrich, Austrian Empire, now part of Vienna. His father, composer Johann Strauss I, wanted him to become a banker. At age 17, after his father left the family, Strauss devoted himself fully to composition. He made his public debut at Dommayer’s Casino in Hietzing, a Viennese district, launching his career.

Rivalry with his father defined Strauss’s early career. He sided with the revolutionaries in 1848, publicly playing La Marseillaise, which cost him the position of Royal Ball Music Director. After his father’s death in 1849, he merged the two Strauss orchestras and led them on extensive tours across Europe. In 1856, he accepted a commission from Tsar Alexander II to play in Pavlovsk, Russia. Overwork led to a breakdown in 1853, and his brother Josef took over the orchestra. Strauss composed the waltz On the Beautiful Blue Danube in 1866, which later gained fame when used in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. His operetta Die Fledermaus debuted in 1874 and became a major success. He also wrote Der Zigeunerbaron in 1885 and Wiener Blut in 1899.

Strauss married three times. His wives included Ernestine Henriette Angelika Dittrich and Adele Deutsch. Because the Catholic Church refused to grant him a divorce from a previous marriage, he changed his religion and became a citizen of the German Duchy of Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha to marry Adele. Adele encouraged his creative work in his later years. Strauss had no children.

Franz Lehár’s operettas show Strauss’s influence. Composers like Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, and Richard Strauss admired his music. His waltz On the Beautiful Blue Danube gained new audiences after its use in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Upon his death from pneumonia in 1899, he received an Ehrengrab at the Zentralfriedhof cemetery in Vienna. He is called the Waltz King, and his operetta Die Fledermaus is still a staple of the repertoire.