The eminent Viennese critic, Dr. Hanslick, a personal friend of Strauss, says of this early period of his career: "The incessant dispenser of joys to all Vienna, Father Strauss, was a tyrant at home. The sons grew up amid the embittering and demoralizing impressions of an unhappy family life. Finally Johann emancipated himself, trusting in his talent, of which he felt certain, and on that Dommayer-evening suddenly came forth as a musical rival of his father. The first three works, with which he made his début, were the waltzes, 'Gunstwerber,' 'Sinngedichte' and the 'Herzenslust' Polka.... The young man's animal spirits, so long repressed, now began to foam over; favored by his talent, intoxicated by his early successes, petted by the women, Johann Strauss passed his youth in wild enjoyment, always productive, always fresh and enterprising, at the same time frivolous to the point of adventurousness. As in appearance he resembles his father, handsomer, however, more refined and modern, so also his waltzes had the unmistakableStrauss family physiognomy, not without a tendency to originality. Our Viennese, the most expert judges in such matters, at once recognized the budding talent of the young Strauss, who promised soon to overtake his famous parent."
JOSEPH STRAUSS.
From a lithograph by Maurin, at the Paris Opera Library.
For more than a quarter of a century Strauss continued to devote himself to the creation and the conducting of dance music; and the number of his pieces in this genre rose to over three hundred. His opus 314 was the "Blue Danube Waltz," which has since become famous not only as a sort of second Austrian national hymn, by the side of Haydn's "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser," but as the transition to a new sphere of activity. For it was a vocal waltz, being written for male chorus and orchestra; and just as Beethoven's choral symphony, according to Wagner, pointed to the necessity of the music-drama, so it seems that Strauss used this vocal waltz as a transition to the Viennese operetta, a new style of stage-music which owes its present form and vogue chiefly to his genius.
It is said that Strauss's wife was largely instrumental in making him change his sphere from the humble dance hall to the more ambitious theatre. She was a famous singer and actress, named Jetty Treffz, when Strauss married her in 1863, and if she was really responsible for her husband's "new departure," the world owes her a large debt of gratitude. She died in April, 1879, and toward the close of the same year Strauss married the dramatic singer, Angelica Dittrich.
Two years after his first marriage he sent Eduard in his place to St. Petersburg, and in 1870 he also resigned his position as conductor of the court balls in his brother's favor. But if any one fancied that he had lost his interest in music, or, like Rossini, intended to retire from active life when his triumph was at its height, the error was soon made manifest; for in 1871 Johann Strauss appeared on the boards of the Theater an der Wien with something which no one had ever expected of him—an operetta. "Indigo" was its name, and its reception was sufficiently gratifying to encourage him to try another and still another, with ever-increasing success.
