"Prélude pour une petite fête", Willy Walther, Raschèr Academy Orchestra

"Prélude pour une petite fête", opus 83 (1936)
by Wilhelm "Willy" Walther (1889-1940)
arranged by Andreas van Zoelen (2025)

Raschèr Academy Orchestra
alto saxophone solo: Ladislav Fančovič
Bad Canstatt, Germany, May 25, 2025
(First performance of the new arrangement for saxophone orchestra)

Wilhelm Walther was born on the 28th of January in Grebenau, Germany.
When the family moved to Darmstadt for professional reasons, this city became the geographical centre of Willy's life, as he also officially called himself.

After graduating from high school, Walther studied theology in Munich, Strasbourg, Marburg and Tübingen, among other places. He passed his state examination in Protestant theology in Heidelberg. However, even during his studies, he struggled with serious crises of religious conviction. He eventually converted to Catholicism and never worked as a theologian.
Instead, in keeping with his many talents, he devoted himself to art as an illustrator, graphic artist, writer, translator and, finally, composer.
His artistic output is immens and spans 19 books with short stories, prose texts and over a thousand poems. His output as composer is equally impressive.

His difficult personality, but also his relationship with Jewish artists and his temporary sympathy for communism had increasingly made him a target of persecution by the Nazi regime. Walther therefore attempted to seek safety in Switzerland in 1935. However, his efforts were in vain. In 1936, the ‘tragic poet’ Wilhelm Walther was expelled from Switzerland, arrested at the border and taken into ‘protective custody’ at the Dachau concentration camp in early 1937.

Three suitcases containing all his possessions were sent from Dachau to his parents' house in Darmstadt in May 1937, together with a list of his ‘surplus effects’. On September 28, Willy was transferred from Dachau to the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was registered under the occupation ‘artist’. Just five months later, on February 24, 1940, his mother received a telegram informing her of his death.

Source: Biographical Notes written by Prof. Dr. Karl-Reinhard Volz.

When I was presented the score of "Prélude pour une petite fête" in its original version for alto saxophone and piano, I was struck by the orchestral writing in the piano score.
I immediately set about writing an arrangement for the Raschèr Academy Orchestra that could do justice to these colours.
The long forgotten music of Wilhelm Walther, in my opinion, is sadly overlooked, and deserves a place in many concert programs.
Dr. Andreas van Zoelen, 2025

Further information on Willy Walther: https://akademie-fuer-tonkunst.de/en/...

Photomaterial © Nachlassarchiv Wilhelm Walther
In chronological order:
Portrait by E.P. Brennecke, 1912
Wilhelm Walther at the piano, around 1925, photographer unknown
Wilhelm Walther in Bregenz, 1936, photographer unknown