On October 25, 1825, Johann Strauss the younger was born in Vienna, the eldest son of the composer and band leader Johann Strauss, who was known for the waltz and was one of the most popular musicians in the city. The father did not want his son to become a musician and sent him to study banking, but the son learned the violin and the piano in secret, and he put together his own orchestra and made his first public appearance as a conductor in 1844, when he was 18. The rivalry was real.
The two were in competition for years, and the son was taken more seriously after the father died in 1849, and he took over his father's orchestra as well as his own, and he also worked with his brothers Josef and Eduard. He wrote dance music at great speed, in waltzes, polkas and marches, and he toured with his orchestra across Europe, and in 1872 he went to the United States and conducted a very large orchestra and chorus at Boston, with thousands of performers, which was one of the largest musical events of the century.
His best known work is The Blue Danube, written in 1866 and later given words, which became a kind of second national anthem in Austria, and his other waltzes include Tales from the Vienna Woods and the Emperor Waltz. He also wrote operettas, and Die Fledermaus, first performed in 1874, is still in the repertory of opera houses around the world, along with The Gypsy Baron. His music was popular with all classes. The music lasts.
He was married three times and was known for a sociable and easy manner, and he was given honours by the Austrian court. He died in Vienna in 1899. The music lives on. His works are played every year at the New Year concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, which is broadcast to a very large audience, and the Blue Danube is the piece with which the concert ends.