Symphony D minor

At the beginning of 1881, Franz Strauss saw the opportunity to present some of his 16-year-old son Richard's compositions to the public. At this time, his father Strauss was working as a horn player at the Munich Court Orchestra and had also been in charge of the Munich amateur orchestra Wilde Gung'l since 1875. Strauss had already performed the Gavotte in D major with the Wilde Gung'l the previous year. Now the festive march in E flat major has been added. For the premiere of Richard's first work in the traditional symphonic genre, however, Franz Strauss drew on his influences at the Munich court. The Symphony in D minor was finally performed by the court orchestra under the direction of Hermann Levi at a subscription concert of the Musikalische Akademie.