Strauss, Richard - Horn Concerto No. 1; Serenade
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Richard Strauss, the Dresden Staatskapelle and the Semperoper. The way Richard Strauss spoke of his “beloved Dresdeners” rang of Bavarian humour blended with a subtle touch of mischievous irony and, first and foremost, a good dose of respect and appreciation. Home to the Königliche musikalische Kapelle (“Royal Musical Ensemble”, that is to say, the Hofkapelle or court orchestra) and the Court Opera, Dresden soon became a centre of Strauss’s music; many of his works were given their premiere there. Ernst von Schuch, Strauss’s “most loyal conductor of choice”, was a key figure: at the symphony concerts given by the Kapelle, the Dresden General Music Director soon acquainted audiences with all of Strauss’s tone poems, from Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche through Also sprach Zarathustra to Sinfonia domestica. Strauss enthused that, years later, it was “the brilliant Schuch’s untiring magic wand” that even-tually opened the series of “exemplary premieres” of his operas in Dresden. Works including Salome, Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier (SEMPEROPER EDITION vol. 9) made Strauss the leading musical dramatist of his time. He had no fewer than nine operas premiered in Dresden, his “Eldorado for premieres”, and dedicated the Alpine Symphony to the Dresden Kapelle as a token of his gratitude. Strauss himself frequently stood at the head of the orchestra; he directed the ensemble in concerts and operatic productions (not just performances of his own works), including the Dresden State Opera’s major tour of London in 1936. The roots of Dresden’s Strauss tradition lie in the venerable Tonkünstler-Verein zu Dresden (which still exists today as the “Chamber Music of the Dresden Staatskapelle”), an initiative that began in 1882 when musicians from the orchestra premiered Strauss’s early Wind Serenade op. 7. Strauss went on to receive frequent invitations to perform as a pianist and song accompanist for the society. He retrospectively commented that the “lovely (Dresden) Tonkünstler-Verein is where my public career really began”. Being the son of Franz Strauss, a musician from the Upper Palatinate who moved to the Bavarian capital and became one of the most famous hornists of his time, the Munich-born Richard Strauss was introduced at an early age to the musical life of his home city, where he gained renown as a highly musical and precocious child. From his cradle, the infant Richard may well have warmed more to the sound of his father playing Tristan on the horn than to the sound of a violin: he used to cry when he heard the violin but gave a gentle smile at the sound of the horn, or so he later reported. What is certain is that the young composer was indebted to the distinguished Franz Strauss not just for his extensive knowledge of horn-playing technique but also for the inspiration to compose, towards the end of the 19th century, what is arguably the most demanding horn style ever written.