By Sam Miller | December 1, 2025

Composed between 1911 and 1915, it took Strauss 100 days to orchestrate one of the most gargantuan works of his career. Strauss was born into a musical family in 1864, and from the young age of six, began composing works on his own. These early pieces were primarily for solo piano or small chamber groups, but Strauss’s talent as a musical prodigy was apparent. The composer’s father, Franz Strauss, was an incredibly talented horn player, and supported his son in any way he could. It was in this nurturing environment that Richard Strauss grew his compositional skill and began his illustrious career. His specialty was tone poems, and composed many that made him popular across Germany. Despite his success with these poems, what Strauss really wanted was to get into opera. He was inspired, like many, by the grand operatic works of Richard Wagner, but his attempts to mimic the Germanic heavyweight’s style resulted largely in failure. In fact, Strauss would not have any success with opera in the 12 years between the composition of his first, Guntram, in 1893, and Salome in 1905, the latter of which was immensely successful, but the first, not so much. It was during these 12 years, however, that the composer’s tone poems alone had made him the most famous composer in Germany. Despite this, with the success of Salome, Strauss expressed a complete disinterest in composing any more symphonies or tone poems, and devoted himself entirely to opera. This disinterest in larger orchestral works lasted for approximately seven years, until in 1911, the composer began to sketch out what he intended to be his final tone poem: Einen Alpensinfonie. This poem drew inspiration from Strauss’s childhood memories. Specifically, it paints the image of a mountain trip taken by a 14-year-old Strauss. “Setting off at two o’clock in the morning, five hours of climbing, sunrise, resting at summit…Then, in thunderstorms and rain, three hours downhill over hill and dale” (Pfister). The Alpine Symphony epitomizes the idea of a “tone poem” or “tone painting.”  A tone painting is the musical technique of reflecting literal feelings or environments into the music. For example, high lofty notes in the strings could represent wind, while a deep, dark bass melody could represent death. Many romantic pieces do this to various extents, but works such as Rachmaninoff’s “Isle of the Dead” or Strauss’s “Alpensinfonie” push the envelope of what is possible with this concept.

Completed in 1919, Elgar’s Cello Concerto was written as a lament for the tragedy of the First World War. Sir Edward Elgar himself was a British composer that didn’t truly achieve fame until his early 40s. Born into a Catholic household in Protestant England, Elgar felt that his family’s religion coupled with their poor financial stability limited the musical opportunities available to him at the time. Despite these setbacks, he never let his passion for music die. Elgar’s father was a piano tuner, and the future composer taught himself the piano at a young age. He studied scores from his father’s shop, and learned to play the organ through a local Catholic Church. Furthermore, later in his life, Elgar also taught himself the bassoon and trombone, as well as taking violin lessons from Adolf Pollitzer in London. Despite his passion, the composer would not have any true success until 1888 with his piece “Salut d’amour” for Violin and Piano. This charming piece, while not the defining work of his career, certainly put him on the British musical map. True fame would arrive for Elgar in 1899 with the Enigma Variations. The Enigma variations would make Elgar a household name across Britain, and skyrocket his career into the spotlight. For the next 20 years, Elgar would compose symphonies, overtures, and tone poems, including the famous Pomp and Circumstance March, which is played at high school and college graduations the world over. In 1919, Elgar would sit down and compose what would be his last full-scale orchestral work. The composer had been deeply perturbed by the war, and both poor health and financial insecurity plagued him in his later years. This pain is felt in his cello concerto.

Samuel “Sam” Miller is a 12th grade student at Gonzaga Preparatory school who writes and distributes a weekly classical music blog that shares different classical songs and explores their background with his teachers and peers. He is an avid violinist studying under Mateusz Wolski, and an enthusiastic member of the Spokane Youth Symphony. Samuel started this project to pursue and share his passion for classical music with others. In his free time, Sam enjoys practicing violin, going to symphony concerts, playing tennis, hanging out with friends, video games, and spending time with his family.