Richard Strauss

Concerto for Violin in D minor, Op. 8

Richard Strauss (1864-1949) wrote his VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MINOR, Op. 8, between 1881 and 1882, and it remained his only foray in that genre. Composed while a teenager and still in school. While still very much a product of the Romantic era tradition, the work is not considered as distinctive as the works he would produce only a few years later, and Strauss himself later ridiculed the work. Still, with inventive and bold writing in the solo and hints of his mature harmonic style to come, there is much to enjoy in the work, including its warmth, youthful sincerity, and lyrical expression, so that it should not be dismissed as mere juvenilia, either by contemporary audiences or Strauss himself. The chamber version of the concerto was first performed in Vienna on December 5, 1882, with the dedicatee Benno Walter on the violin while Strauss played his own piano reduction. The premiere for the orchestral version would take place seven years later in Cologne on March 4, 1890, with Walter again performing the solo with an orchestra conducted by Franz Wüllner. Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2: 4.2.0.0: Timp: Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set): Solo Violin.