Anniversary year: Waltz King as a pop pioneer: Vienna celebrates 200 years of Strauss

Performances in front of tens of thousands of people, posing for the audience and fans on the stage ramp: Johann Strauss has long been able to do what today’s pop stars can do. This year Vienna is celebrating the composer’s 200th birthday. Behind his image as the “Waltz King” there are not only brilliant melodies, but also a sense of money, press work and familial female power.

Johann Strauss was born in Vienna on October 25, 1825, but the anniversary year is already in full swing. At the turn of the year, the ball season begins in the Austrian capital, which is traditionally closely linked to the music of Johann Strauss. The musician, who died in 1899, created more than 500 dance compositions.

Strauss hits are still going strong today

His great-grandnephew Eduard Strauss explains why Johann Strauss’ music continues to this day: “Everyone all over the world understands and feels this music,” he tells the German Press Agency. Works like the “Danube Waltz” trigger emotions without having to explain them, says the head of the Vienna Institute for Strauss Research.

Johann Strauss achieved fame and prosperity. The numerous balls are still an economic factor for Vienna today. Business representatives expect that 190 million euros will be spent on ball visits, dresses and hairstyles this year. More than half a million dance enthusiasts are expected at the numerous events such as the Opera Ball, the Kaffeesiederball and the Flower Ball. There are also around 65 concert and stage productions as well as several exhibitions dedicated to the Strauss year.

The “electric” bouquet

A look back shows the rock star status that Strauss enjoyed. In 1872 he traveled to the United States and performed in Boston in front of tens of thousands of people at a huge festival. According to the New York Times, he had to play the “Danube Waltz” twice at the request of the enthusiastic audience. Another newspaper, the Boston Daily Evening Transcript, called him “Strauss the Electric.”

For the performances with an American orchestra of hundreds of musicians in Boston, Strauss received $100,000 – that would be around 2.4 million euros today. There were also fan articles during his lifetime: portrait photos of the artist were printed in an edition of 100,000 for his guest concerts in Russia.

Talent for show and press

Especially at the Russia concerts, fans crowded in front of the podium, says musicologist Thomas Aigner. This affected “especially the ladies who wanted to be closer to him and catch a glimpse of him.” It is proven that at the beginning of his career, Strauss practiced conducting with the violin in his hand in front of the mirror and specifically sought eye contact with audience members during performances, says Aigner. “But it didn’t detract from his artistic achievement,” he emphasizes.

What the PR teams do for pop stars today was done by Strauss himself and provided material to the tabloid press. He claimed, for example, that instead of his own locks, he gave hair from his dog’s fur as a souvenir to Russian ladies. The press was also interested in his love affairs and three marriages, which inspired Strauss to write his “Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka”.

The idea that Strauss created his waltzes, polkas, marches and stage works all by himself is false. Just as entire teams of songwriters and producers are behind international hits today, Johann Strauss also had employees. As a young bandmaster, fellow musicians helped him develop his ideas for the various instruments in the orchestra. Richard Genée helped compose operettas such as “Fledermaus”.

Johann Strauss had no sound training as a composer. “That was a quick-fire course,” says Eduard Strauss about the lessons that Johann took in harmony. His debut as a bandmaster at the age of 18 had to do not only with his artistic development, but also with the commitment of his mother Anna and her separation from Johann’s father of the same name, who was also a famous composer and conductor – as were Johann’s brothers Joseph and Edward.

On the same day that Anna divorced her unfaithful husband, young Johann applied to a relevant authority to be allowed to work as a professional musician. This ensured Anna’s income. “The mother becomes independent of the father,” explains Eduard Strauss. After Johann Strauss’s death, it was primarily his widow Adele who ensured that his music was not forgotten.

“You have to de-kitchen it”

However, the Waltz King had drafted his will in such a way that Adele was never allowed to marry again if she wanted to receive money from the inheritance. “He was not a good, nice or kind person,” says Eduard Strauss about his great-great-uncle. Strauss also suffered from various phobias, such as a fear of train travel.

“You have to de-kitchen him,” says Eduard Strauss about Johann, of whom there is a gold-plated statue in Vienna’s city park. “I don’t want to deny Strauss any of his genius,” says the descendant of the Strauss dynasty. “But to me it’s even more interesting when you see that he was a person who had such genius despite or alongside his personal peculiarities.”