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Otto Ackermann was one of the most widely acclaimed conductors of opera and operetta, both in concert and on record. Born in Bucharest, he studied at that city's Royal Academy, and later at the Berlin Hochschule fur Musik. His first major post was as Kapellmeister at the Dusseldorf Opera House, and in 1932 he was appointed Chief Kapellmeister of the German Theater in Brno. From 1935 through 1947, he served as chief Kapellmeister of the Municipal Theater of Berne, and from 1949 until 1955 he served as a conductor at the Zurich Opera House. Ackermann returned to Germany in 1955 as music director of the Cologne Opera House, and also became a popular guest conductor at the Vienna State Opera during this period, as well as at opera houses in Monaco and Italy. He returned to the Zurich Opera in 1958, but he became seriously ill late in the following year, and died early in 1960.

Ackermann's best-known recordings were the operettas he recorded under the auspices of EMI Classical chief Walter Legge during the years 1955 through 1959. His recordings of Johann Strauss' The Gypsy Baron and A Night in Venice, both starring Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, have near-legendary status among even casual listeners. Alas, his June/July 1959 recording of Strauss' Die Fledermaus -- Ackermann's last major work -- is somewhat lesser-known, for it stands in the shadow of EMI's 1955 recording of Fledermaus under the baton of Herbert Von Karajan, with Schwarzkopf. Surprisingly, for the work of a renowned operatic specialist, Ackermann's 1950 recording of Weber's Der Freischutz is not well-regarded. By contrast, his conducting on Schwarzkopf's recording of Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs is stunning in its sensitivity and passion, and Ackermann also superbly conducted the accompaniment to Solomon's performance of the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 15, and was a noted interpreter of Mozart's operas, although these are not represented on record. His work with the mainstream German/Austrian repertory, including the Beethoven symphonies, was also very popular, but has been supplanted by other conductors' recordings. ~ Bruce Eder

Johann Strauss, Jr. is the first truly well-known composer in those classical genres particular to his hometown, the Viennese waltz and Viennese operetta. The Blue Danube Waltz is not only the most popular of his works in the former category, but is among the most widely played and arranged pieces of its time, known to the most casual listener today from many radio, film and television uses of it.

Johann Strauss, Jr. was born in Vienna on October 25, 1825. He showed remarkable skills early in his childhood, despite his father's opposition to any career in music for any of his three sons. Johann, Sr. wanted him to become a banker, but the younger Strauss had his own ideas, taking violin lessons in secret from a player in his father's band. When Strauss was 17 his father left the family, thus allowing him to begin serious study without encumbrance. His mother, a good amateur violinist who had always encouraged him, remained supportive. Strauss now studied theory with Joseph Drechsler and took violin lessons from Anton Kohlmann. In 1844 young Johann led his first concert and a year later formed his own band, thereby competing with his father's orchestra. He was also writing his own quadrilles, mazurkas, polkas, and waltzes for performance by his ensemble, even conducting works by his father, and receiving praise from the press. He was given the honorary position of Bandmaster of the 2nd Vienna Citizens' Regiment (his father was bandmaster of the 1st regiment) in 1845, and in 1847 began composing for the Vienna Men's Choral Association.

His real success began in 1849 after Johann Strauss, Sr. died. Johann, Jr. merged his father's orchestra with his own and took up his father's contracts. His career moved along smoothly for the next several years, but in 1853 he became seriously ill and turned over conducting duties to his younger brother, Josef, for six months. After his recovery he resumed fully both his conducting and his composing activities, eventually gaining the respect of such composers as Brahms, Wagner, and Verdi for his seemingly unlimited imagination for using melodies.

Strauss married singer Henriette "Jetty" Treffz in August 1862, and they settled in Hietzing. Thereafter, she became his business manager and apparently a great inspiration, drawing him toward operetta, just as Viennese theater operators were becoming tired of the works of Offenbach. His first, Indigo und die vierzig Räuber, came in 1871, and his most famous, Die Fledermaus, was staged three years later with great success. Eine Nacht in Venedig (1883) and Der Zigeunerbaron (1885) were his only other international operetta hits.

In 1872, he traveled to the United States and led highly successful concerts in Boston and New York. For all the success that came in the 1870s for Strauss, there was also much grief: his mother and brother Josef died in 1870, and his wife died suddenly of a heart attack in 1878. Her death devastated him, and the suddenly helpless composer unwisely married the much-younger actress Angelika Dittrich, six weeks later. The marriage lasted only four years, though it may have saved the composer from personal disaster in the months following his wife's death.

Strauss, a Roman Catholic, left the church and had to give up his Austrian citizenship to marry Adele Deutsch in 1887, owing to the Church's unwillingness to recognize his divorce. His new wife, with whom he had lived for a long period before their marriage, seemed to inspire him much like his first wife. In his last years, Strauss remained quite productive and active. He was working on a ballet, Cinderella, when he developed a respiratory ailment which grew into pneumonia. He died on June 3, 1899. ~ Robert Cummings