In his compositions for horn Richard Strauss showed his profound understanding of this Romantic instrument’s character. This he achieved with greatest success in his first horn concerto, which, alongside Mozart’s contributions to this genre, is one of the most famous and frequently performed of solo concertos. Originally composed in a version for horn and piano, the orchestral version was then premiered in Meiningen in March 1885. Strauss was unable to attend the premiere but learned from his uncle’s report that Hans von Bülow “had conducted the concerto himself, with visibly great enthusiasm and interest.”

Editor Peter Damm, a world-class soloist and former solo hornist of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, has not only performed the concerto more than 170 times, but has also presented in publications on its genesis his fundamental research findings that are now being included in this work’s first Urtext edition. In the preface the editor has also added some practical performance indications.

The piano reduction and study edition corresponding to this edition have been published by G. Henle Verlag, Munich.