Künstlerleben, op. 316

Künstlerleben was written for the carnival of 1867 and first played in February that year at a ball of the Vienna artists' association Hesperus, within days of the choral premiere of An der schönen blauen Donau. The two waltzes come from the same weeks and the same social world: Strauss supplied the Viennese associations — artists, students, lawyers, industrialists — with a new dance for each season's ball. Artists' Life has none of the programmatic ambition of its neighbour, but its succession of linked waltzes shows the same command of long-range pacing.