Jr. takes over the Strauss Family Band

Synopsis

Vienna may be "The City of Dreams," but it is also the city of scandal, intrigue, and gossip — and the Viennese would be the first to admit it, especially when music is concerned.

On today's date in 1849, Johann Strauss, Jr. conducted his father's orchestra for the first time, just two days after the elder Strauss's funeral. Now, you would think the Viennese would see that as a good thing: the younger Strauss picking up his father's baton to keep the orchestra alive…

But in Vienna, heads shook and tongues wagged. Insiders reported that some members of the orchestra refused to perform under the younger Strauss, who two years earlier had dared to set up his own orchestra in direct competition with his father's. A shocking lack of filial piety, said some, and called for a boycott. Others recalled that, truth be told, Johann Strauss Senior was something of a cad, who had deserted his wife and family to move in with his mistress. Johann Strauss Junior, they argued, was forced to form his own band to support his mother and younger brothers!

Ah, for the Viennese gossips, it didn't get any better than this! Meanwhile, the younger Strauss quietly combined both orchestras into one ensemble, and in short order consolidated his position as Vienna's undisputed "Waltz King."

Music Played in Today's Program

Johann Strauss, Jr (1825-1899) Farewell Waltz Slovak State Philharmonic; Christian Pollack, cond. Marco Polo 8.223239

On This Day

Births

• 1893 - American composer and pianist Leroy Shield, in Waseca, Minn.; His wrote much of the uncredited film music for the Hal Roach studios in the 1930s (including many classic Laurel & Hardy and "Our Gang," comedies);

• 1929 - British composer Kenneth Leighton, in Wakefield, Yorkshire;

Deaths

• 1920 - German composer Max Bruch, age 82, in Friedenau (near Berlin);

• 1943 - Canadian-born American composer R. Nathaniel Dett, age 60, in Battle Creek, Mich.;

• 1996 - Finnish composer Joonas Kokkonen, age 74, in Jarvenpaa;

Premieres

• 1913 - Butterworth: "A Shropshire Lad," at the Leeds Festival, with Artur Nikisch conducting;

• 1960 - Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8, in Leningrad, by the Beethoven Quartet;

• 2001 - Steven Heitzeg: "Nobel Symphony" at Gustavus Adolpus College in St. Peter, Minn., by the Gustavus Orchestra, soloists and choirs, conducted by Warren Friesen;

Others

• 1828 - Two weeks before his death, Schubert writes a letter to a music publisher offering them his latest work, the String Quintet in C (D. 956); The publisher declined the offer; The work was first performed in public in 1850, and was not published until 1853;

• 1849 - Johann Strauss, Jr., takes over his father's orchestra, one week after his father's death.