Johann Strauss III
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Johann Strauss III (February 16, 1866 - January 9, 1939) was an Austrian composer, son of Eduard Strauss and grandson of Johann Strauss I. He was unofficially entrusted with the task of upholding his family's tradition after the disbandment of the Strauss Orchestra by his father in 1901. His talents were not fully realised during his lifetime as musical tastes had changed in the Silver Age with more popular composers such as Lehár and Oscar Straus dominating the Viennese musical scene with their operettas although his uncle, Johann Strauss II supervised his development as a musician, a fact disputed by Eduard Strauss.
Despite his keen interest in composing, he was better remembered as a conductor. His only stage work, the three-act operetta Katze und Maus composed in 1898 was premiered in Vienna on 23 December 1898 at the Theater an der Wien with its public reaction bordering on utter dislike, with music critics calling for the distraught composer to reassess himself and to appear under a pseudonym in order not to tarnish the name of his famous relatives. He salvaged the music score and produced independent pieces of which the Sylvianen op. 1 and Leonie op. 2 waltzes survived obscurity.
He also conducted from the violin in the style of the Vorgeiger and of his family. In 1903, he elevated the Strauss family to a new age of development when the Deutsche Grammophon AG of Germany recorded his conducting of the Johann Strauss Orchestra on eight single-sided records of works by his family. Principally, he was the first conductor in the Strauss family to actively conduct works to be recorded by prominent recording companies. His later works, such as Dem Muthigen gehört die Welt op. 25 The World Belongs to the Brave and Krönungs-Walzer op. 40 Coronation Waltz the latter celebrating the coronation of King Edward VII were also considerably more popular than his earlier efforts.
Johann Strauss III died in Berlin on 9 January 1939 before the outbreak of World War II.
