Vienna
Johann Strauss
Orchestra
the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra was founded in response to that desire by a group of Viennese musicians under the direction of Eduard Strauss, grand-nephew of Johann Strauss.
The debut of the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra remains a milestone of the development of Viennese music. Then as now, the desire for musical entertainment on a high level was widespread. About 120 years after the establishment of Strauss' orchestra, in 1965, the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra was founded in response to that desire by a group of Viennese musicians under the direction of Eduard Strauss, grand-nephew of Johann Strauss.
The orchestra chose as its mission and primary task the promotion of not only the music created by the Strauss dynasty but also of the Viennese music in general. Its first tour of the United States, lasting a full six weeks, began only a few months after its founding and followed the footsteps of the original Strauss ensemble, led on several tours of the U.S. by great-uncle Eduard. (In the end, that great-uncle would dissolve the orchestra in New York, 1891.)
After Eduard Strauss' all too early death in 1969, Willy Boskovsky became the primary conductor of the orchestra; to this day, his name is linked to the tradition of the New Year's Concert and to the music of Johann Strauss like no other. With Boskovsky leading them with both baton and bow, the ensemble has begun touring across Europe, the U.S.A., South America, Corea, China, and of course Japan. Also part of the Boskovsky-era was a much intensified schedule of recordings that culminated in a series of sessions in the 1970s that saw nearly the entire oeuvre of the Strauss Dynasty recorded anew for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation. After the death of Boskovsky, the orchestra was accompanied in its travel- and concert-activity mostly by three conductors: Walter Goldschmid, Rudolf Bibl and especially Kurt Wöss.
In the more recent past, personages such as Alfred Eschwé, Franz Bauer-Theussel and Martin Sieghart led the ensemble; currently, the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra works closely with the Austrian conductor Johannes Wildner and has its own concert series in the Golden Hall of the Wiener Musikverein.
Photos: wjso.or.at/en-us
copyright ©Lukas Beck