Dedication and Performances
Strauss dedicated the piece to the 27-year old Willem Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw Orchestra. However, it was premiered by the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester on March 3, 1899 in Frankfurt, with the composer conducting. The first American performance occurred a year later, performed by the Chicago Symphony, conducted by Theodore Thomas.
Béla Bartók wrote a piano reduction of the piece in 1902, performing it on January 23, 1903 at the Vienna Tonkünstlerverein.
Read more about this topic: A Hero's Life
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“At one of the later performances you asked why they called it a “miracle,”
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