Franz Strauss was a renowned horn player in the Bavarian Court Orchestra under the conductor Hans von Bülow. By all accounts, Franz Strauss was quite a character with von Bülow describing him as the ‘Joachim of the Horn’ and also commented ‘the fellow is intolerable but when he blows his horn, you can’t be angry with him’. Wagner agreed with von Bülow: ‘Strauss is an unbearable curmudgeonly fellow but when he plays the horn, one can say nothing, for it is so beautiful.’ As father to Richard Strauss, he was an equally capable composer in his own right. This Nocturno, Op 7, was published in 1904; it is a beautiful lyrical work which has become a staple part of the horn repertoire.

from notes by Richard Watkins © 2019