Orchestra: Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra®
The Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra can rightly claim to be one of the most authentic ensembles for interpreting the music of the Strauss dynasty and other Viennese composers of their time at the highest level.

In 1966 — nearly 120 years after Johann Strauss I had founded the Strauss Orchestra, the great demand for high-quality interpretations of light music led a group of musicians in Vienna who belonged to the small ensemble of the Austrian Radio Orchestra to found the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra. The aim of new orchestra was to cultivate the music of the Strauss dynasty, together with so-called ‘light’ Viennese music. It was formed of forty-two musicians, that it to say the ensemble was the same size as that which, according to authentic accounts, was preferred by the members of the Strauss family.

In the year it was founded the orchestra made a six-week tour of America and Canada under the conductorship of Eduard Strauss II, the great-nephew of Johann Strauss II. In doing so it was following in the tracks of the famous Strauss Orchestra, with which Eduard Strauss I had made two concert tours of the USA and Canada before he disbanded the orchestra in New York in 1901.

After the far too early death of the last professional musician of the Strauss dynasty, Eduard II, in 1968, the post of conductor was taken over by a man whose name is connected down to the present day with the tradition of the New Year’s Day concerts like that of no other: Willi Boskovsky.

Under his baton and bow there began a busy round of tours which still continues today and which has taken the orchestra not only right across Europe but also to the USA, South America, Korea, Russia, China and Japan.

The Boskovsky era also saw the beginning of increased activity in recording, reaching its peak in the 1970s, when almost the entire output of the Strauss dynasty was recorded for Austrian Radio (ORF). Meanwhile the number of recordings has reached almost 1,000 titles, with some 190 albums having been released worldwide.

After the death of Boskovsky, the orchestra was mainly under the direction of Walter Goldschmid, Rudolf Bibl and, above all, Kurt Wöss. Later, conductors such as Alfred Eschwé, Ola Rudner, Franz Bauer-Theussl, Martin Sieghart and Johannes Wildner stood and stand for authenticity and tradition. Since 2008 it has been working intensively with Johannes Wildner and since 2010 it is exclusively Wildner and Eschwé who have conducted the ensemble.

Since 1981 the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra has regularly given concerts in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, and since 1999 this has also been the venue for its own cycle of concerts. The orchestra also gives concerts in other major music centers in Austria, such as the Brucknerhaus in Linz and the Stefaniensaal in Graz. Recently, apart from their concerts in Austria, the orchestra has performed at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, at the Gasteig in Munich, at the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad and at the Rheingau Festival in Wiesbaden.

Conductor: Johannes Wildner
The Austrian conductor Johannes Wildner has been Chief Conductor of the Sønderjyllands Symphony Orchestra in Sønderborg (DK) since 2019/20. From 2013-2023 he also was a University Professor for Conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, as well as the artistic director of the Austrian opera festival Oper Burg Gars. In the years before, the musicologist, who holds a doctorate in musicology, was Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra in London (2010-2014), General Music Director of the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia, which is also the opera orchestra of the Musiktheater im Revier (1997-2007), First Permanent Conductor of the Leipzig Opera (1996-1998), as well as Chief Conductor of the Prague State Opera (1994-1995) and the Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra Košice (1990-1993).

His years of experiences as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra have given his conducting a distinctive stamp.

In the Festival Oper Burg Gars, which he directs, Wildner conducted Verdi’s Aida as his last production in Gars in 2023 after the very successful productions of Don Carlo, Otello, Magic Flute, Tosca, Fidelio and Carmen.

As part of his collaboration with the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra, Johannes Wildner regularly performs at the Vienna Musikverein, the Elphilharmonie Hamburg and on tour in China, Japan and Korea.

As a guest conductor, he regularly appears on the rostrum of major orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Arena di Verona, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra Copenhagen, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gelders Orkest in Arnhem, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, the Taiwan Philharmonic Orchestra, the China Philharmonic, the Shanghai Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a sought-after opera and operetta conductor, Johannes Wildner has conducted not only at the Prague State Opera, the Leipzig Opera (TV recordings of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte) and the Musiktheater im Revier/Gelsenkirchen, but also at the Vienna Volksoper, the Graz, Salzburg and Linz Opera Houses, the Halle Opera, the Arena di Verona, the New National Theater Tokyo, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, the Croatian National Theater Zagreb, the Lithuanian Opera in Vilnius, the National Theater in Bucharest, the National Opera Bratislava, the Brno National Theater, the Metropol Theater Berlin, the NCPA in Mumbai, as well as at the Wagner Festival in Wels, the Seefestspiele Mörbisch, the Vienna Summer Festival “Mozart in Schönbrunn”, the Carinthian Summer Festival, the Opera Festival St. Margarethen and the “Festival de Mayo” in Guadalajara/Mexico.

Johannes Wildner recorded over 100 CDs, DVDs and videos with a wide opera and concert repertoire, including the complete recordings of Die Fledermaus, Così fan tutte for Naxos and a live recording of Bizet’s Carmen, Bruckner’s 3rd (in all versions) and 9th Sinfonie (with reconstructed 4th movement) and the complete works for piano and orchestra by Robert Schumann with the ORF-RSO Vienna and Lev Vinocour for Sony RCA Red Seal, and Beethoven’s 7th Symphony and his Violin Concerto with Alexandre da Costa and the Taipei Symphony Orchestra for Warner. Numerous recordings also document his interest in rarely-played or forgotten music: Works by Erich Zeisl, Joseph Marx and Johann Nepomuk David with the ORF-RSO Vienna for CPO; Joseph Marx’ “Autumn Symphony” with the Graz Philharmonic, and works by Frédéric d’Erlanger, Walter Braunfels or Charles Martin Loeffler with the BBC Orchestra for Dutton Records.

Johannes Wildner studied conducting (with Karl Österreicher, Otmar Suitner and Vladimir Delman), violin and musicology in Vienna and Parma.