"The Contemporaries". At the summer benefit which took place on 5th July 1864 in the Volksgarten, Josef Strauss presented his Zeitgenossen waltz for the first time. Apparently the composer had finished this work some time before, for the premiere of the waltz had already been announced various times, but ultimately Josef Strauss must have taken into account the fact that the people's attention was concentrated at the time on the war in Schleswig-Holstein in which a contingent of Austrian troops had become involved, rather than on a new waltz score. He accordingly waited with his new work until the July event. The waltz must have been well liked by the public, for it was subsequently performed again frequently. Vim and vigour are surely not lacking in Josef's waltz score. Even the composer's contemporaries knew how to value and demand this, for as already ascertained, the subsequent work became a standard in the programmes of the Strauss orchestra. This waltz was published on 9th August 1864.

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Painting: Les princes d’Orléans
Artist: Eugene Lami
Date: 1860

Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Michael Dittrich