Yannick Leads Strauss and Schubert

When the 103rd Infantry and Tenth Armored divisions of the U.S. Army rolled into the Bavarian mountain town of Garmisch in 1945, they needed headquarters, and commandeered villas for their use. Residents were given mere moments to pack their bags and leave their homes to the U.S. forces. One resident, an elderly man, emerged outraged, exhorting the soldiers: “I am Richard Strauss, the composer of Rosenkavalier and Salomé.”

Fortunately for the 80-year-old composer, the commanding officer was a musician himself and declared the house off limits, ordering his men to look elsewhere.

As the war came to an end, Strauss received regular visits from U.S. military personnel who posed with him for photographs, got his autograph, and listened to him play the piano. Among them was a 24-year-old intelligence officer named John de Lancie, who in civilian life was an oboist, and who made repeat visits, enjoying long conversations with the composer. Familiar with Strauss’s orchestral works, de Lancie asked Strauss if he had ever considered writing an oboe concerto—a chance question that evidently planted a seed of inspiration. Within months, the oboe concerto was completed, and while de Lancie did not give the U.S. premiere of the work, he did play The Philadelphia Orchestra’s first performance of it, in August 1964 with Eugene Ormandy at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.