http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/308553812

Munich, 2 May 1884, to Otto Lessmann

Saying that in an account of the Weimar Music Festival in Lessmann's paper [the Allgemeine Musik-Zeitung] Strauss found no mention of his Violin Concerto; Strauss then mentions music he has recently heard: in Dresden, Bach's Trauerode [BWV 198], the first act of Parsifal (beginning with the Transformation Music), and [Beethoven's] Ninth Symphony, all conducted by [Franz] Wüllner; in Munich, Beethoven's Namesfeier Overture, Spohr's "sehr schön" Fifth Symphony (which pleased him more than [Hans von] Bülow's performance of it in Berlin), and Beethoven's Violin Concerto, a lullaby by [Josef] Nešvera, and Paganini's Hexentanz, all played by [Frantisek] Ondricek; three unimportant songs by Christian Sinding, Schumann's Löwenbraut, and Loewe's Prinz Eugen sung by Eugen Gura; all of Wagner's songs, his two piano sonatas, the two Albumblätter, the Siegfried Idyll (conducted by Levi), Gruss seiner Treuen an Friedrich August, An Webers Grabe, performed by Eugenie Menter, Hans Bussmeyer, and soloists from the opera; the pianist Luise Adolpha le Brau played a very unimportant work of her own and accompanied Gura; saying that the next day [3 May] Parsifal will be performed for the first time for His Majesty [King Ludwig II], with [Heinrich] Gudehus, [Therese] Malten, that attempts to cover the orchestra failed--the sound was dreadful, the space was too small, and ventilation was inadequate (unlike Bayreuth, which was designed for a hidden orchestra); adding that on 23 April Bussmeyer, Hieber, and Ebner played a Haydn Trio, Spohr's Piano Quintet op. 130, and Strauss's Cello Sonata, etc.

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