Strauss, Richard

Strauss, Richard – Divertimento für Orchester (nach Klavierstücken von François Couperin)

b. Munich, 11 June 1864 – d. Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 9 September 1949)

(1941, published 1942)

Preface
In the final decade of his life, Strauss composed two orchestral suites based on the keyboard works of François Couperin (1668–1733), continuing a project he had begun in the early 1920s. The second of these, the Divertimento, Op. 86, reflects Strauss’s recurring engagement with French Baroque sources. Its eight movements transform Couperin’s harpsichord pieces into colorful miniatures for chamber orchestra. Although initially conceived as part of a ballet production undertaken with Clemens Krauss, the Divertimento emerged as a stand-alone concert work and has had a modest presence in the orchestral repertoire ever since.

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Strauss’s interest in Couperin had deep roots. In 1923, he arranged a selection of Couperin’s Pièces de clavecin (1713–1730) for chamber orchestra. The result was Tanzsuite aus Klavierstücken von François Couperin (TrV 245), which transformed the French composer’s solo keyboard dances into stylized orchestral movements. This earlier suite became the foundation for Strauss’s Verklungene Feste (“Bygone Celebrations”), a ballet conceived in collaboration with the conductor Clemens Krauss and choreographers Pia and Pino Mlakar. Premiered in Munich in 1941, the production reconstructed the grandeur of Baroque court entertainment by pairing historically informed choreography based on the dance notation system of Raoul-Auger Feuillet (1700) with modern adaptations of Couperin’s music. At Krauss’s request, Strauss supplemented the Tanzsuite with orchestrations of additional harpsichord pieces, expanding the score into a full-length ballet lasting roughly 75 minutes. The result was a hybrid of Baroque and Romantic theatrical traditions, staged during the wartime austerity of Nazi Germany as a nostalgic artistic escape. …

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