Radetzky March, Op.228

Johann Strauss I (1804-1849)

Radetzky March, Op.228

Although Johann II more or less eclipsed his father as a composer of ballroom dances, none of his fifty or so marches can compete in popularity with Johann I’s Radetzky March, which means as much to Vienna as any of the Strauss waltzes, even The Blue Danube. It was written to celebrate the decisive victory of the Austrian Army led by the 82-year-old Field-Marshal Johann Josef Wenzel, Count Radetzky von Radetz, over the Italian forces at Custozza in 1848. Reputedly completed in no more than two hours and incorporating two Viennese folk songs, it is one of the least solemn and one of the most effective pieces of its kind. For the Viennese at least, “It fires the blood like paprika.”