[Hornlist] Re: Strauss 1 Variants

[William Melton]

In January Howard Sanner raised this subject in another forum, and 
since Joel Lazar expressed an interest this last week, perhaps it's 
time to discuss the matter in some detail. To review, Barry Tuckwell's 
notes to his 1990 Decca recording cite "many unaccountable differences 
between the original short score and the printed edition. Harmonies 
have been changed and sixteen bars of the accompaniment scratched out, 
but not in Strauss's usually clear handwriting. In this recording the 
deleted bars and the original harmonies have been reinstated." Sounds 
mysterious, if not sinister. But the usually reliable wisdom of 
original MS trumping all is brought into question in this particular 
case. Something quite the opposite of sinister was going on.

First, the evidence of the case. Ideally, we'd all reconvene in Munich, 
where multiple Aibl editions of the score can be found at the 
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, and the MS of the piano version is at the 
Münchner Stadtbibliothek. Then we'd head south and east to look up 
additional sources that go unmentioned in Franz Trenner's "R. S. 
Werkverzeichnis."  First a short trip to the  Strauss Archive in 
Garmisch-Partenkirchen would yield the unidentified MS score that Prof. 
Hans Pizka discovered during the renovation of the 
Prinzregenten-Theater, and a copy of a "Notizblatt", an unsigned 
listing of corrections (probably the work of publisher Eugen Spitzweg) 
that were incorporated into the printed piano version. Then a rather 
longer trip to Vienna would offer a look at both the "Stichvorlage" of 
the piano score and Franz Strauss' own copy of the horn part, which 
were inherited by Universal after they secured the Aibl catalog (both 
of these are now housed in the Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek). 
Finally, for the sake of completeness, we could swing northwest to Gera 
for a complete set of first edition orchestral parts to compare with 
the score (Archive of the Gera Theater Orchestra).

Luckily, none of us has to make the trip, as Peter Damm already has.  
25 years ago he posed much the same question that Messrs. Lazar and 
Sanner have raised (in "Gedanken zu den Hornkonzerten von Richard 
Strauss", Richard Strauss-Blätter, Neue Folge, 4, Vienna, 1980, pp. 
31-41), but the demands of his career -- including over 170 
performances of the concerto in question -- made research a slow 
process.  Damm finally published the results of his inquiries three 
years ago ("Neue Gedanken zum Konzert Es-Dur für Waldhorn mit 
Orchesterbegleitung op. 11 von Richard Strauss", Richard Strauss: 
Essays zu Leben und Werk, ed. Michael Heinemann, Matthias Herrman and 
Stefan Weis, Laaber, 2002, pp. 23-71).  For those who may not have the 
opportunity to read it, Damm's newest article sifts through each source 
and each variant, carefully comparing them and giving facsimile 
incipits when required. Anyone who needs answers to specifics are 
directed to this article. Interestingly, despite the great detail of 
the inquiry, Damm's conclusion is relatively mild:  that hornists 
should take it upon themselves to amend the wrong articulations present 
in the printed horn part.  Why no umbrage at what Tuckwell called 
"unaccountable differences"?  Simple -- because the differences are 
accountable.

Now for a lineup of the four suspects. As mentioned before, the 
"Notizblatt" was Eugen Spitzweg's work. Hans von Buelow was behind 
changes in the accompaniment, and hornist Gustav Leinhos suggested 
corrections in the horn line. Finally, Franz Strauss made the copy of 
the solo part that contained divergent articulations. But there was 
nothing sinister in any of these contributions. In fact, the band of 
musicians that Franz Strauss had selected to surround his teenage son 
shared a common goal: to prepare him to be a master composer (hard to 
argue with this upbringing, because it produced the master craftsman 
that we're still discussing today). Franz Strauss, himself a truly 
complete musician, had exposed his son to a carefully graded curriculum 
(the opposite of the hard knocks school that had formed the father), 
that included private lessons with picked teachers in piano, violin, 
and composition. Richard's early orchestral works were copied, vetted, 
promoted, and often conducted by Franz. Early performances were 
carefully rationed, the right artistic contacts delicately forged. All 
this went on parallel to Richard's normal school life at a classical 
Gymnasium.  A few selected vignettes from the years preceding the 1st 
Horn Concerto will give an idea of the dynamic at work (and it may be 
helpful to keep in mind that at the beginning of 1879 Richard Strauss 
was fourteen and a half years old):

1879 -- Richard wrote friend Ludwig Thuille after a dose of his 
father's advice, "I have to take the Variations for Horn in E flat 
major [Introduction, Theme, and Variations for Horn and Piano, AV 52] 
that I composed last fall, and rewrite them for human lungs and human 
lips; as is they are almost unplayable."
1880 -- Richard completed his composition studies.
1881 -- Three important early premieres in Munich, and the publication 
of op. 1.
1882 -- In August Richard successfully completed his Gymnasium studies 
(his reward was a trip to Bayreuth to witness the creation of 
"Parsifal"), and in October was allowed to join the first violins of 
the Wilde Gung'l to learn about the orchestra firsthand. The gestation 
of the Horn Concerto, op. 11, began, he attended university lectures in 
the fall, and his first two important premieres outside of Munich 
occurred in Dresden (where Oscar Franz reported the success back to 
Franz Strauss) and Vienna.
1883 -- Early in the year Richard premiered the concerto in the piano 
version with Franz' former pupil Bruno Hoyer at the Munich 
Tonkuenstlerverein. Later Richard was sent on an exploratory tour of 
Dresden,  Berlin, and Leipzig, and with his father's introductions 
approached both Gustav Leinhos and the master conductor Hans von Buelow 
who were on tour in Berlin.
1884 -- Buelow (Franz' old sparring partner in the 1860s) was now 
thawing out on things Straussian, and took up Richard's new Suite for 
Winds, op. 4 with his excellent Meiningen ensemble, even inviting the 
young Strauss to conduct the Munich premiere.
1885 -- Rehearsals of the orchestral version of the Horn Concerto in 
Meiningen were played by Leinhos and conducted conspiciously by Buelow =

(the evening's conducting program was shared by the Meiningen 
Kapellmeister Franz Mannstaedt, who might have normally been expected 
to do concerto duty). On receiving the proofs of the score Buelow 
complained to Aibl publisher Eugen Spitzweg about "old-fashioned tutti" 
(the comment "much too long" is also written on the Notizblatt), and 
Leinhos wrote directly to the young composer about "going to Buelow to 
show him the corrections, whereupon he told me that we would give this 
concerto a very thorough preparation." The concerto with orchestra 
received its world premiere in Meiningen on March 4, 1885 (and Leinhos 
wrote the composer afterwards about "some additional changes" that 
Buelow had made). Buelow then sent his and Leinhos' corrections to 
Spitzweg, who incorporated these changes (aided by Franz Strauss' copy 
of the horn part) into the printed Aibl full score in 1885 (this date 
was proposed by Peter Damm). Spitzweg paid the obscure young composer a 
lump sum at once, before a single copy of the concerto was sold. Buelow 
smoothed Richard's path in Meiningen, and the youngster was elevated to 
Hofkapellmeister there at the end of the year.
1886 -- Oscar Franz, the dedicatee of the orchestra version, gave the 
Dresden premiere on January 29.
(Universal-Edition of Vienna would buy the Aibl catalog in 1904, and 
the Horn Concerto score was printed by them for the first time in 
1939).

After its printing in 1885, Richard Strauss had the next 64 years to 
change the Concerto, op. 11 back to its original state. He never 
expressed such a desire. He did remember to thank his father and Hans 
von Buelow posthumously, in print, for their firm instruction of their 
callow pupil.

Two parting thoughts. Peter Damm's advice to compare the articulation 
markings of the facsimile and printed editions is wise, after which 
informed changes can be made in pencil if desired. Finally, Strauss 
titled this work a concerto "with orchestral or piano accompaniment": 
CD performances by Michael Hoeltzel and Fredrich Wilhelm Schnurr 
(Musikhaus Dabrinhaus und Grimm oHG), and Johannes Ritzkowsky and 
Wolfgang Sawallisch (Arts Music GmbH) demonstrate that it is a 
show-stopper even in its piano incarnation.

Bill Melton
Hauset (B) / Sinfonie Orchester Aachen (D) 
 
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