Künstlerleben, Waltz, Op. 316

Program notes

About the Work

Künstlerleben (Artist’s Life) is a close contemporary of the most famous waltz of all. Johann Strauss wrote it for the ball of the Hesperus, the Viennese artists’ association to which all three Strauss brothers belonged, and it was first played on 18 February 1867, only a few days after the first performance of The Blue Danube.

It was not a cheerful moment in Vienna. In 1866 Austria had lost the war against Prussia at the battle of Königgrätz, and many of that year’s balls and concerts had been cancelled. For the carnival season of 1867 the Strauss brothers supplied a whole series of new pieces between them, and waltzes like this one helped to lift the city’s mood. Künstlerleben quickly became popular, and was soon regarded as a twin to The Blue Danube. It has never quite matched its sibling’s worldwide fame, but it has remained a repertoire piece.

What to Listen For

A Strauss concert waltz is a chain: a slow introduction, a sequence of five waltzes and a coda that looks back over what has been heard.

Here the introduction is especially fine. It begins pensively, with a foretaste of the waltz melody, and is cut short by two loud chords before the dance proper begins. The first waltz is high-spirited. The second and third are more wistful, the last two brighter again. The coda is long, reprising what has come before, and ends in triumph.

Keep these sounds in mind for what comes next. Ravel’s La Valse takes exactly this world, and exactly this form, and looks at it through a darker glass.