Grüß dich Gott, du liebes Nesterl (Wiener Blut)

Wiener Blut was assembled rather than composed: in 1899 the Carltheater in Vienna proposed an operetta made from existing Strauss waltzes and polkas, and the ageing composer gave his approval without taking part in the work, which Adolf Müller junior carried out. Strauss died on 3 June 1899, months before the premiere on 26 October. The first run lasted thirty performances and ruined Franz Jauner, who had financed it; Jauner shot himself at his desk the following February. The piece established itself only later, in a revised staging, and takes its title from a waltz Strauss had written in 1873.