Eduard Strauss - The Third Man of the Strauss Family

Eduard Strauss I (1835-1916), the youngest of the three Strauss brothers - and hence the 'third man' of the family, has always been overshadowed by his siblings Johann II and Josef. However, he was the longest lived and most widely travelled of the three and, as sole conductor and manager of the Strauss Orchestra for thirty years, brought authentic performances of his family's music to audiences in hundreds of towns and cities in Europe and North America. At home in Vienna he made an invaluable contribution to the city's musical and cultural life, while having at the same time to cope with continual tensions and problems within the Strauss family.

Leigh Bailey (*1946) studied at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and subse-quently taught English, Translation Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Vienna for 37 years. Between 1982 and 2001 he produced and presented many reports and features on the Strauss dynasty for Radio Austria International, and in 1999 was co-curator of an exhibition at the Austrian Mint in Vienna to mark the centenary of the death of Johann Strauss II.