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
Famous quotes containing the words dedication and/or performances:
“It is difficult for me to imagine the same dedication to women’s rights on the part of the kind of man who lives in partnership with someone he likes and respects, and the kind of man who considers breast-augmentation surgery self-improvement.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“At one of the later performances you asked why they called it a “miracle,”
Since nothing ever happened. That, of course, was the miracle
But you wanted to know why so much action took on so much life
And still managed to remain itself, aloof, smiling and courteous.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)