Serenade for Winds in E-flat Major, Op. 7 Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss was born in Munich on June 11, 1864. His father was one of the finest horn players of his day, and held the post of principal horn player in the Munich Court Opera Orchestra. Franz Strauss had very conservative musical tastes, approving of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, but disliking the music of Brahms and despising both Wagner the man and his music. This is ironic because all of Wagner's famous (and fiendishly difficult) horn lines were written to be played by Franz Strauss! Richard showed early musical promise, composing a polka at the age of six. His father later recalled "I well remember that Richard's mother used to cover his school books with blank music-paper, and that the boy would use the coverings for scribbling his musical ideas during the progress of a French lesson".
The Serenade for Winds in E-flat major, Op. 7, was composed at around the time Strauss entered Munich University to study philosophy, aesthetics, and art history in 1882. The work is scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, as well as four horns and one tuba. (Strauss included a part for string bass - only for the final chord - which is not performed.) The first performance was on Nov 27, 1882 in Dresden. At the time, Strauss was still under the influence of his father, who, he said "kept me very strictly to the old masters, in whose compositions I had a thorough grounding." and thus the composition is Classical in feel, with cheerful themes and a relatively simple structure. In spite of this, hints of the more complex and modern Strauss of the tone poems can be heard, especially in the horn lines and the skillful interweaving of the 13 instrumental lines.
The Serenade led Hans von Bulow, a leading pianist and conductor to revise his former poor opinion of Strauss and declare him "by far the most striking personality since Brahms". As a result, von Bulow offered Strauss his first commission (for the Suite in B-flat for 13 Winds). Strauss' conducting debut followed with the Meiningen Orchestra of Munich soon thereafter. About this experience, Strauss said "He [von Bulow] started me on my conducting career. My first experience of standing before an orchestra was in connection with the performance of a suite, in four movements, for wind instruments I had composed at his request, and which is still in manuscript. Bulow made me conduct it without any rehearsal!" Strauss reported afterward that he made it through the performance "in a state of slight coma". In spite of this, von Bulow appointed Strauss his assistant. A year later, von Bulow resigned his post and the 21-year old Strauss succeeded him. (As an interesting historical note, von Bulow, Liszt's first important piano student, was also the first husband of Liszt's daughter, Cosima - best known as Cosima Wagner after her second husband.)
In his highly successful conducting career, Strauss concentrated especially on the works of Mozart, restoring Cosi fan tutte to the active performing repertoire. While still in his early 20's he began composing some of his most famous orchestral works - the tone poems including Aus Italien (1886), and Tod und Verklarung (1888-89). His tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra (1894-98) is also known as the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey. After a long and distinguished career conducting and composing, Strauss died on 8 September 1949. His wife of 55 years, the singer Pauline de Ahna, followed him to the grave in May 1950, just 9 days before the first performance of his final masterpiece, the Four Last Songs.
Serenade for Winds in E-flat Major, Op. 7
