With his first horn concerto, and being barely 18 years old, Richard Strauss accomplished a delightful stroke of genius. Up to the present day, this concerto has been appreciated all over the world by horn players (and others), forming part, alongside Mozart's masterpieces, of essential repertoire pieces for the instrument. Peter Damm, former solo horn of the Dresden Sächsische Staatskapelle orchestra and world-renowned soloist, not only performed this concerto himself in public more than 170 times, but also presented and published the fundamental results of his investigations concerning the genesis of this concerto. Its Urtext edition takes into account all of the preserved sources and can therefore be considered as a reference edition. For the study of the piece as well as for the auditions, the reduction for piano carried out by Johannes Umbreit and particularly well playable, proves to be of great help.
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