Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28
by Richard Strauss
Composed in 1895 and dedicated to Arthur Seidl, Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks) is the wittiest and most immediately appealing of Strauss's tone poems. It follows the exploits of the medieval German trickster Till Eulenspiegel — riding through a market, disguising himself as a monk, seducing women, mocking pedants — before his eventual trial and execution, signalled by a grotesque ascending glissando in the violins. Strauss's orchestration is a tour de force of colour and characterisation, and the rondo-like structure gives the piece a coherence beneath its surface exuberance.
Editions
Edition Peters
Fritz Reiner, 1932
Standard performing edition long used by major orchestras; some annotations reflect German orchestral practice of the interwar period.
Boosey & Hawkes
Norman Del Mar, 1969
Revised edition with comprehensive performance notes by Norman Del Mar from his monumental Strauss study.
Bärenreiter
Nicholas John, 2009
Critical Urtext edition from the Richard Strauss Kritische Ausgabe, collating all autograph and early printed sources.