Born in Vienna in 1804, the son of an innkeeper, Johann Strauss first played the viola in Joseph Lanner's dance orchestra, then founded his own in 1825. With it he set Vienna dancing and toured as far as Paris and London, where he played for Queen Victoria's coronation in 1838. He wrote more than two hundred and fifty waltzes, polkas, galops and marches. He died in Vienna in 1849, a year after the Radetzky March. Three of his sons, Johann, Josef and Eduard, became composers and conductors in turn.
The catalogue presents the Radetzky March in the piano version Haslinger published in 1848. The staccato chords in both hands ask for a light wrist and a steady tempo, like a band marching in step.
