Cello Sonata (Strauss)

Cello Sonata
by Richard Strauss
The composer in 1886
English	Sonata for Cello and Piano in F major
Native name	Sonate in F dur für Violoncello und Pianoforte
Key	F major
Catalogue	Op. 6, TrV 115
Composed	March 1883
Dedication	Hans Wihan

Richard Strauss composed his Cello Sonata in F major, Op. 6, TrV 115, in 1883 when he was 19 years old. It was dedicated to the Czech cellist Hanuš Wihan, who gave the premiere in 1883. It rapidly became a standard part of the cello repertoire.

Strauss completed the first version of the Cello Sonata on 5 May 1881. His sister Johanna was a good friend of Dora Wihan, a talented pianist and wife of the cellist Hanuš Wihan (he was known by the first name Hans in Germany), who played in the Munich Court orchestra along with Richard's father Franz. "Through these relationships, Strauss came to know Wihan and his instrument's idiomatic possibilities". He composed and dedicated the sonata for "his dear friend" (Seinem lieben Freunde) Hans Wihan. On the first manuscript, he added a verse by Austrian poet Franz Grillparzer:

Music, the eloquent,
is at the same time silent.
Keeping quiet about the individual
She gives us the whole universe

In March 1883 he revised the sonata into its current form, notably replacing the original finale with a completely new one. The sonata is in the traditional three movements:

Norman Del Mar wrote that "...the influence of Mendelssohn is strongly marked. The opening of the sonata has a fine verve and Strauss wrote proudly home to his parents that the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim had congratulated him" Strauss had met Joachim at an evening concert on 16 January at Berlin where they shared the stage: Strauss had accompanied Robert Hausmann in the Cello Sonata, and Joachim continued with the Beethoven Romance in G and Bach's Chaconne from the D minor Partita.

The premiere was given on 6 December 1883 in Nuremberg, by Hans Wihan and pianist Hildergard von Koenigs. On 19 December of the same year, while visiting Dresden, Strauss accompanied the principal cellist of the Dresden Court Orchestra, Hermann Boekmann. Oscar Franz, a horn player in the orchestra, reported to Franz Strauss: