Concerto • Guitar and Piano • Richard Strauss

Concerto for Guitar and Piano

Richard Strauss (born June 11, 1864, Munich, Germany – died September 8, 1949, Garmisch- Partenkirchen) was an outstanding German Romantic composer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His symphonic poems of the 1890s and his operas of the following decade have remained an indispensable feature of the standard repertoire.

The Concerto in D major for Oboe and Small Orchestra, AV 144, TrV 292, was written by Richard Strauss in 1945. It was one of the last works he composed near the end of his life, during what is often described by biographers, journalists and music critics as his "Indian summer."

American oboist John de Lancie was a corporal in the U.S. Army unit which secured the area round the Bavarian town of Garmisch where Strauss was living in April 1945, in the closing days of World War II. As principal oboist of the Pittsburgh Orchestra in civilian life, he knew Strauss's orchestral writing for oboe thoroughly, visited the composer in his home, and in the course of a long conversation asked him if he had ever considered writing an oboe concerto. Strauss answered simply "No", and the topic was dropped. However, in the months to follow, the idea grew on him and he completed the short score of his Oboe Concerto on September 14, 1945, finishing the orchestration on October 25. John de Lancie had been astonished to see that Strauss was indeed publishing an oboe concerto. Strauss saw to it that the rights to the U.S. premiere were assigned to de Lancie, who after the war had switched to the Philadelphia Orchestra and was only a junior member there. Protocol made de Lancie's performing the premiere impossible since the Philadelphia Orchestra's principal oboist had priority.

John de Lancie later became the principal oboist for the Philadelphia Orchestra. His only public performance of the Concerto was the company premiere of the piece on August 30, 1964 at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, with Eugene Ormandy conducting. In 1987, de Lancie had the opportunity to record the work he helped inspire with a small orchestra identified only as "Chamber Orchestra" conducted by Max Wilcox on the RCA label.

This adaptation by guitarist Gregg Nestor should be a wonderful addition to the repertoire for Guitar and Piano.