Music by Johann Strauss Jr. will be played at the Russian Railway Museum on the composer’s 200th birthday

October 25, 2025, marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of composer Johann Strauss Jr. In the mid-19th century, his music was inseparably linked to Russia’s first Tsarskoye Selo Railway.

From 1856, Johann Strauss was the conductor at Pavlovsk Music Station—the railway’s terminus—and remained there for ten seasons. Performances by the “King of Waltzes” were a major event in the capital’s cultural life and attracted the public to the new mode of transport.

On Saturday, October 25, the Russian Railway Museum will play Johann Strauss Jr.’s best-known works: “The Blue Danube,” the polka “In the Pavlovsk Forest,” the waltz “Farewell to St. Petersburg,” and others.

Multimedia installations will help visitors immerse themselves in the era of the famous composer. The interactive “Pavlovsk Music Station” installation consists of a 1:100-scale architectural model, a film, and a VR zone. This technically and artistically unique model makes it possible to see Russia’s first Tsarskoye Selo Railway along its entire route, watch miniature steam locomotives approach the music station, and see day turn into night.