Eduard Strauss II

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Eduard Strauss II on July 30, 1956 in Japan.

Eduard Strauss II (complete: Eduard Leopold Maria Strauss , born March 24, 1910 in Vienna-Matzleinsdorf , † April 6, 1969 in Vienna ) was an Austrian conductor . He was the great-grandson of Johann Strauss (father) , grandson of Eduard Strauss and the great-nephew of Johann Strauss (son) and Josef Strauss . His numerous appearances abroad brought the music of the Strauss dynasty closer to those interested in the Far East in particular .

resume

Eduard Strauss II was born on March 24, 1910 as the son of Josef Strauss II (1868–1940) and Cäcilie (also zzilia ), née. Zack (also Žak , 1878–1951) was born in Vienna V (Margareten), attended elementary school and received his first violin lessons at the age of six. At the age of twelve he decided to become a musician, he learned piano, horn and music theory at the Vienna Academy of Music (today: University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna ). Until he was called up in 1939, he taught at the Auer Weissgerber Singing School in Vienna, from 1946 to 1956 he was a teacher and répétiteur at the Conservatory of the City of Vienna (today: Music and Art Private University of the City of Vienna ).

In 1949 he was asked by the festival week organized by the Johann Strauss Society Vienna (from which today's Wiener Festwochen emerged ) whether he would perform in front of an orchestra as an interpreter of the music of the Strauss family, which he agreed after some reservations. His debut as a conductor took place on June 4, 1949 with the Niederösterreichisches Tonkünstlerorchester in Vienna City Hall, when he conducted the waltz On the Beautiful Blue Danube . On December 11th he conducted a Strauss operetta - Wiener Blut - for the first time at the Volksoper Vienna . In July 1950 he conducted a first concert with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra , and in 1954 a first international tour with the New Vienna Concert Association to Germany and Switzerland.

In 1954 he starred in three films. In Ewiger Walzer he played his grandfather Eduard Strauss , in the girlhood of a queen his great-grandfather Johann Strauss (father) and in Der Komödiant von Wien his great-uncle Johann Strauss (son) .

In 1956 he finally gave up teaching and devoted himself exclusively to conducting. In July 1956 the first of his six tours to Japan began, each of which lasted several months. More followed in 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965 and the last in 1967. The tour of 1956 was followed by a detour for two concerts in Manila , followed by concerts in Seoul in 1957 and 1962 .

Foreign tours or individual guest performances took him to Germany (1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1968), Switzerland (1954, 1955, 1956, 1968), Italy (1957), Hungary (1960, 1961, 1963), the USSR (1960), France (1962, 1964), Norway (1963), Denmark (1963, 1965, 1967), Great Britain (1964), Sweden (1964), Bulgaria (1964), Czechoslovakia (1963, 1964, 1966 , 1967), Canada (1965, 1966), the USA (1966), Poland (1967) and Greece (1963).

He has conducted, among many other orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic , the Vienna Symphony, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra , the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and the Leningrad Philharmonic . His first record as a conductor was in 1956. Radio recordings for ORF were made in 1969.

In 1961 he directed the operetta The Merry Widow in Cairo , which was performed here for the first time in Egyptian .

In 1966, together with other musicians, he founded the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra (it goes back to an idea that the Vienna Symphony Orchestra brought to him in 1954, which, however, failed again except for two concerts), which he directed and conducted until his death.

Grave in the Vienna Central Cemetery . (2017)

In 1950 he married Elisabeth Pontes (1919–2001), their son Eduard Strauss was born in 1955 and worked as a judge, most recently as Senate President at the Higher Regional Court of Vienna until his retirement (end of April 2020) . Eduard Strauss II died completely unexpectedly on April 6, 1969 of a hemorrhage as a result of an aortic aneurysm that was not recognized or treated .

literature

Web links

Commons : Eduard Strauss II  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rainer Schmitz and Benno Ure: Keys, Töne and Tumulte: Everything you don't know about music , Siedler Verlag, 2016, ISBN 3-8275-0083-4 , on Google Books , accessed on May 3, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Strauss, Eduard II
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Kapellmeister
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 1969
Place of death Vienna