Larry Sherwood wrote:

>I am going to go out on a limb here, but I am guessing that the
>officer to whom Leon refers was the same officer, an oboist, who
>prevailed on Strauss to write his oboe concerto.  So his visit was
>more in his capacity as an oboist than in his capacity as an officer
>in the U.S. Army.

from http://net.unl.edu/musicFeat/composer/cmstrauss.html:

   "the oboe concerto was requested from Strauss after the end
   of World War II by one of the occupying American soldiers:
   John De Lancie, principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
   Strauss composed it in short score while he was still living
   at his villa in Garmisch, and orchestrated it after his removal
   to Switzerland.  It was premiered in Zurich in 1946, and has
   become one of the staples of the oboe literature.  It is a
   sunny, classical work, with flowing and perky writing in the
   outer movements and a poignantly lyrical melody in the slow
   middle movement."

I seem to recall an on air conversation with De Lancie where he mentioned
that Strauss had little response to De Lancie's suggestion to write an
oboe concerto.  De Lancie was then surprised later when the concerto
appeared.

My sense is also that De Lancie had requested the audience with Strauss,
and was probably not among the first US soldiers to visit Strauss.

Best regards,

Tom Connor