Strauss Richard: Symphony op. 12 / Concert Overture C minor

During the summer of 1883 Richard Strauss composed two large-format orchestral works in traditional genres, the lengthy Concert Overture in C minor and the Symphony in F minor op. 12, both of them also with the same instruments. The overture is anything but a secondary effort; it also cannot be understood as a simple »work of his youth.« Although the key and the opening stance of the overture clearly point to Beethovens Coriolanus Overture, the subliminal irritations, frictions, surprises, and saliencies already present here become even much more apparent in the symphony. As in the overture, so too in the symphony: the composer abstains from any sort of allusions to content, and even more strikingly he does not include a dedication, even though the work was immediately published. And the finale pursues an unusual course, not with a breakthrough but over a festive path leading to a hymnic theme followed by an absolutely wild conclusion.