Serenade for Wind Instruments in E-flat Major, Op. 7 - E-flat Major

When he was a mere 18 years old, Richard Strauss composed the highly Romantic, one-movement Serenade for Wind Instruments, op. 7. Extremely popular among wind players to this day, this work recalls in instrumentation and structure Mozart's "Gran Partita", which certainly served as a model for Strauss. The serenade was not premiered in its Bavarian homeland as might have been expected, but rather in Dresden, in 1882, under the direction of the then much-esteemed conductor Franz Wullner, who had also given the inaugural performances of Richard Wagner s Rheingold and Die Walkure and later premiered Strauss' tone poems Till Eulenspiegel and Don Quixote. So it was a great honour for the young Bavarian! Editor Norbert Gertsch presents this little masterwork here for the first time in Urtext quality - in full score and instrumental parts - for which not just the first edition but also the autograph manuscript was scrutinised fastidiously.