Wiener Philharmoniker Fanfare

The Vienna Philharmonic Fanfare was composed by Richard Strauss (1864-1949) for the Vienna Philharmonic Ball and premiered on March 4, 1924. The score is marked: “Dedicated to the lovely, wonderful Vienna Philharmonic.”
Richard Strauss is said to have been tempted in his statements about his instrumentation to “play down the complex connections between composing and instrumentation to a routine process primarily based on technical craftsmanship, which did not even begin to do justice to the very complex artistic processes involved in the preparation of the score.” (Aringer, Klaus)
Richard Strauss naturally devoted his life to the “art of instrumentation” with great devotion in order to be able to make his sound concept “visible” in the score – appropriately instrumented. He continued to develop and is one of those composers who have had a lasting impact on this area of ​​the artistic process.
The aim in creating this arrangement should therefore be to "preserve" the original sound of the original instrumentation for 22 brass instruments and timpani as closely as possible. The woodwind players can therefore primarily "only" be given tasks to enrich the sound of the main voices. The "Austrian" traditional instruments (flugelhorn and tenor horn / baritone) - which are obligatory for this arrangement - find their special area of ​​responsibility in supporting the horn, trumpet and / or trombone voices. For the registers mentioned, exact dynamic designations or articulation instructions are noted in the musical text, which - if performed successfully - should ultimately help to achieve the desired, optimal tonal color mix. Designations such as mfp (mezzoforte-piano) instead of fp (forte-piano) were therefore deliberately chosen. In summary, this should make it possible to bring out the full sound of the trumpet, horn and trombone parts despite the lack of instrumentation and to get as close as possible to the original sound.