«Ballroom Music of Imperial Vienna» — this is how Vladimir Spivakov defined the concert program dedicated to the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II, the Waltz King. Under the maestro’s baton on that Festival night the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia will play the best waltzes and polkas by the legendary Strauss family.
The patriarch of the famed dynasty, Viennese conductor and composer Johann Strauss I fathered 14 children. He had no time for their education because of his very busy touring. The only thing he demanded from their mothers was the ban to teach them music. However, nothing helped to keep this taboo working. One of Johann Strauss I’s sons. Johann II, outdid his father in the music art and, moreover, made his brothers Eduard and Joseph get interested in music, so that they also left their mark in music history.
Johann Strauss II’s works are still associated with the Golden Age of Vienna music culture. He wrote several hundreds of waltzes (he joked that melodies were running from him like water), gtreat many of polkas, quadrilles, marches and other miniatures in his own unsurpassed style. His name is also connected with the flourishing of operettas — he is the author of Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeuner Baron which became the models for all adepts of the Viennese composer school.