Hang Around the World: Music #387

The Waltz Kings

In the 19th-century, Johann Strauss and his sons took Vienna by storm with polkas, galops, quadrilles, marches, and particularly waltzes.

In their hands, the waltz rose from its humble peasant origins (village tavern), to working-class dance halls and aristocratic ballrooms (e.g. Sperl Ballroom).

Johann Strauss Sr

/ Johann Strauss I / Johann Strauß Vater (1804 - 1849)

*** The Radetzky March

- named after Joseph Radetzky von Radetz (the 82-year-old Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Austrian army, for its open-air victory festival in Vienna in 1848)

- incorporated two popular Viennese melodies: a common street song and a dance melody.

* Sperl Galopp (He performed at the prestigious Sperl-Ballroom in Vienna; a six-year contract there consolidated his fame.)

* Cachucha Galopp (from the Spanish dance "cachucha")

* Lorelei Rhein Klänge (Echoes of the Rhine Lorelei)

He had 6 children (3 sons carried on the musical family tradition) with his wife, and 7 with his mistress.

"He was famous for the rhythmic verse of his music and the finesse of his conducting, but his music has been eclipsed by the more memorable melodic gifts of his sons."

Johann Strauss Jr

/ Johann Strauss II / Johann Strauß Sohn (1825 – 1899)

List_of_compositions

* Tales from the Vienna Woods - as in The Great Waltz (1938 movie)

* Artists' Life
* The Blue Danube (actually greenish) - digital
* Roses from the South
* Wine, Women and Song
* Voice of Spring - vocal
* The Emperor's Waltz
* Vienna Waltz

* The Skaters Waltz
* Chit-chat Polka
* Thunder & Lightning Polka
* Cross-Fiddling Polka
* Russian March
* Napoleon March - ballet

The Bat operette / Die Fledermaus
... an irresistible blend of Offenbachian wit and Viennese suavity
* Overture

Click here for a 2.3-hour full version.

The Gypsy Baron operette / Der Zigeunerbaron
... where Viennese Romanticism is spiced with Hungarian gypsy idioms