Richard Strauss was 17 years old and about to finish his schooling when he completed his E flat–major Wind Serenade in November 1881. Conductor Hans von Bülow promptly included the work in his concert programs, and a career as a composer suddenly became a real possibility for the young musician. Shortly afterward, Bülow commissioned Strauss to write another piece for wind ensemble, the Suite in B-flat major. It was only in the 1940s, near the end of his long life, that the composer once again turned to this combination of instruments with his two Wind Sonatinas. Led by Gregor Witt, the orchestra’s principal oboist, members of the Staatskapelle Berlin perform these rarely heard pieces, together with an arrangement of the ever-popular tone poem Till Eulenspiegel.