Synopsis
By the time of his death in 1949, German composer Richard Strauss was famous worldwide as the composer of operas like Der Rosenkavalier and tone-poems like Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. These operas and tone-poems are so famous, we tend to forget that Strauss also composed symphonies — two of them, both written when the young composer was just starting out.
Strauss’ Symphony No. 1 was premiered in his hometown of Munich on today’s date in 1881, when the composer was just 16. That performance was given by an amateur orchestra but was conducted by one of the leading German conductors of that day, Hermann Levi, who would lead the premiere of Wagner’s Parsifal the following year. Another eminent Wagnerian conductor, Hans von Bulow, subsequently took up the teenager’s symphony, and also commissioned him to write a Suite for Winds.
American conductor Theodore Thomas was an old friend of Richard Strauss’ father, Franz Strauss, and while in Europe during the summer of 1884, Thomas looked over the score for the younger Strauss’ Symphony No. 2, and immediately arranged for its premiere in New York City the following winter.
Music Played in Today's Program
Richard Strauss (1864-1949): Symphony No. 1; Bavarian Radio Symphony; Karl Anton Rickenbacker, conductor; Koch/Schwann 365 322
On This Day
Births
1935 - American composer Gordon Muma, in Framingham, Massachusetts
Deaths
1764 - Italian composer Pietro Locatelli, 68, in Amsterdam
Premieres
1725 - Bach: St. John Passion (second version) performed at Vespers on Good Friday as part of Bach’s second annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1724/25). The first version had premiered on Good Friday in 1724 (April 7).
1881 - R. Strauss: Symphony No. 1, in Munich, with Hermann Levi. This was Strauss’ first major orchestral work.
1951 - Piston: Symphony No. 4, by the Minneapolis Symphony, Antal Dorati conducting
2000 - Corigliano: Phantasmagoria (Suite from the opera The Ghosts of Versailles), in Minneapolis, by the Minnesota Orchestra, Giancarlo Guerrero conducting
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.