complete recital program - George Mason University School of Music

Huffman maintained a close professional relationship with oboist,
John de Lancie. This included collaborations on this concerto with
“Pershing’s Own” in the years before Mr. de Lancie’s passing. The Strauss
oboe concerto is unique among compositions in that the story behind
it can be directly traced. This story is even more remarkable when one
learns of the amazing coincidences that led up to its creation.
In the mid 1930s, a young oboist (age 15) was accepted into the
prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He would study
with the legendary oboist Marcel Tabuteau. Graduating at age 18, John de
Lancie was named principal oboist of the Pittsburgh Symphony (under
the renowned Strauss expert, Fritz Reiner). As World War II began, de
Lancie enlisted in the United States Army Band (now, Pershing’s Own)
in Washington DC. The Army Band was deployed to North Africa and
spent nine months in Algiers (a French speaking colony). This offered de
Lancie an opportunity to learn French fluently. When the band deployed
to the United Kingdom, de Lancie was asked to join the OSS (a precursor
to the CIA). The OSS was urgently seeking Americans who spoke French.
Shipped off to France, de Lancie used his French to expose spies
radio-ing American troop movements back to Germany. At the conclusion
of the war he was sent to Germany himself to search for the handlers
of those French spies. It was in Garmisch-Partenkirschen that de
Lancie ran into his old friend from The Curtis Institute, Alfred Mann.
Since, Reiner had communicated such an appreciation for Strauss, de
Lancie was excited by the possibility of meeting Strauss in person. To this
Alfred replied that the Strauss villa was just up the street. Alfred and de
Lancie spent three days with Strauss. Strauss spoke French quite well, so
they all had no trouble communicating.
At one point, de Lancie asked Strauss if he had ever considered
writing an oboe concerto (since he seemed to have a special affinity for
the oboe, writing such beautiful oboe solos in Don Juan and Death and
Transfiguration). Strauss replied simply: “no”, and was the end of the matter,
or so it seemed. It was the end of WW II, and even though Strauss’
association with the Nazi party had been nominal (at most) he still had
to be cleared of enemy suspicion. Waiting around his villa – he decided
to use this otherwise idle time to put pen to paper, one month later, the
Strauss Oboe Concerto was finished.
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