Johann Strauss the younger, the most famous and enduringly successful of nineteenth-century light music composers, was born in Vienna in 1825. Along with his brothers Josef and Eduard, Johann II developed the classical Viennese Waltz to the point where it became as much a feature of the concert hall as the dance floor. With his abundantly tuneful waltzes, polkas, quadrilles and marches, Johann II captivated not only Vienna but also the whole of Europe and America for more than half a century.