Wilhelm Mauke

If his inspiration eventually sought expression in larger frames, it must be noted that the slant of his genius habitually ran to larger conceptions.

in any event the liederabende of strauss and his betrothed help explain the creative impulses which at this stage found so much of their outlet in song-writing the composer was later to explain that a new song might be dashed off at any half-way idle moment might even be scribbled down in the twinkling of an eye between the acts of an opera performance or during a concert intermission and as spontaneously as schubert richard strauss busied himself with poems of the most varied character on the young man's twenty-first birthday hans von bulow recommended to duke georg of meiningen an uncommonly gifted musician as substitute while he himself went on a journey for his shattered health beulot referred to the suggested deputy as ricard three since after ricard wagner there could be no ricard two strauss arrived in meiningen in october eighteen eighty five the little ducal capital boasted a high artistic standing its theatrical company enjoyed international fame the town to be sure had no opera but the orchestra though numbering only forty-eight instrumentalists had been so trained by the suffering yet exigent bulow that it was virtually unrivalled in germany the newcomer was encouraged to submit under his mentor's eye to an intensive training bulow's rehearsals ran from nine in the morning till one in the afternoon and his disciple from munich was invariably on hand from the first to the last note the rest of the day was devoted to score reading and to every subtlety of conductor's technique the young man was absolutely overwhelmed by the exhaustive manner in which bulow sought out the ultimate poetic content of the scores of beethoven and wagner and a favorite saying of the older musician was never to be forgotten by his disciple from munich first learn to read the score of a beethoven symphony with absolute correctness and you will already have its interpretation strauss made other friends and valuable connections in meiningen one of the most important and influential of these was an impassioned devotee of wagner alexander like so many apostles of the creator of parsifal at that period ritter was a violent opponent of brahms besides he was the composer of a comic opera der faule hans and of a symphonic poem that once enjoyed a vogue in germany kaiser rudolf ritt zum it was ritter's service to familiarize strauss with some of the deepest secrets of the scores and writings of wagner as well as of liszt and he understood how to fire his young friend with soaring enthusiasm for his own ideals he also did much to inspire the budding conductor with a taste for the writings of schopenhauer an inclination he himself had inherited from wagner ritter's influence in short was one of the luckiest developments at this stage of strauss's career the first concert the youth from munich conducted in meiningen took place on october eighteenth eighteen eighty five it afforded him a chance to exploit his talents as pianist and batonist as well as composer what with the programme that included beethoven's coriolanus overture and seventh symphony mozart's c minor piano concerto and that f minor symphony of his own which theodore thomas had conducted the previous year in new york strauss had every reason to be pleased with the outcome bulow speaking of his debut as pianist and conductor had referred to it as gerard zu verblüffend simply stunning even the hard-shelled brahms who chanced to be on hand had deigned to encourage him with a cordial very nice young man when on december one of that year bulow gave up the orchestra's leadership strauss inherited the post conducted all concerts and had to direct sometimes on the spur of the moment almost anything this or that high-priced personage might suddenly take a fancy to hear with the courage of despair he repeatedly attempted compositions he hardly knew or had not directed publicly yet he never made a botch of the job, inwardly as he may have quaked.

To this period belongs a composition which has survived and at intervals turns up on our symphonic programs, the curious burlesque for piano and orchestra.

The piece is something of a problem, but it is one of the most yeasty and original products of its composer's youth.