Intermezzo, described as a "bourgeois comedy with symphonic interludes, premiered in November of 1924.  "Intermezzo was based on an episode in the Strausses' life arising from a misunderstanding in a Berlin bar in 1902, when an Italian tenor and an impresario were approached by one Mieze Mücke for two tickets for the opera.  They introduced her to their companion, the company's conductor Josef Stransky.  The Italian repeated mispronounced his name as Strausky.  Stransky forgot the tickets, and the persistant Mieze looked up what she thought was his name and address in the telephone directory.  She found Hofkapellmeister Strauss and sent this note to Joachimsthalerstrasse: 'Dear Herr Strauss, I expected to see you yesterday in the Union Bar, but in vain, alas...' Strauss was staying on the Isle of Wight when this note arrived at his home.  Pauline [his wife] opened it, assumed the worst, telegraphed her intention of seeking a divorce and saw their lawyer, Friedrich Rösch." (Michael Kennedy, Richard Strauss)

Dimitri Mitropoulos was Greece’s most prolific conductor and New York Philharmonic Music Director from 1949–1958.  Widely regarded as one of the most significant conductors of the twentieth century, he is best remembered for his significant recorded legacy and for his commitment in bringing new compositions to the stage of major symphony orchestras.  Indeed, it is thanks to his efforts that many of our current symphonic standards made their way into the repertory.  He gave world and American premieres of seminal works such as Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 and Schoenberg’s Erwartung, as well as other major works by Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and many others.  His personal collection has been held in private hands since his death in 1960, when it passed to conductor James Dixon, his student and protégé.  Mitropoulos came to consider Dixon his son, introducing him to conductors and performing arts institutions around the world, jumpstarting his career.  When Mitropoulos died in 1960 he left all his belongings, including his scores, to Dixon.  The bulk of the musical library has been subsequently gifted to the University of Iowa’s music library, but a selection of rare items have been selected to be offered for sale exclusively by Schubertiade Music & Arts.  These examples, many inscribed to the conductor from composers or associates, have only occasional markings from the conductor himself who committed all music to memory before his first rehearsal of the repertoire – a highly unusual method!  Some of these scores, however, were also subsequently used by James Dixon as part of his working reference library for many years and include his occasional markings.