The magnificent Graz premiere of Joseph Marx’s Herbstsymphonie (Autumn
Symphony) was held on 28 September 1922 under the expert conductor and
sound specialist Clemens Krauss. It was a great triumph for Marx, and when
Krauss selected this work for a concert program in Vienna in late May of
the following year, the public went wild. The Herbstsymphonie is not so
much a symphony in the traditional sense as a multimovement rhapsody of
massive proportions, both in view of its huge orchestral dimensions and its
performance length. For this reason this gigantic composition ranks as one
of music history’s most lavishly instrumented works. Until now Joseph Marx
has been known primarily as a composer of songs and chamber music. However,
already in 1911 he had composed the sumptuously designed cantata Herbstchor
an Pan (Autumn Chorus to Pan), a work that also in its choice of theme may
be said to herald the coming of the Herbstsymphonie.