Signed program from a concert with orchestra that the German composer conducted at the Augusteo, Accademia di S. Cecilia, in Rome, February 15, 1912. Bifolium. Signature "Dr. Hans Pfitzner"v in ink sideways to the right side of the first page. 9.75 x 6.75 inches (25 x 17 cm). Pfitzner's printed name is underlined in red crayon; impressions of rusty paper clips to upper edge; else in very good condition. The period before and during the First World War was probably the happiest in the life of this controversial composer. Always a German nationalist, Pfitzner had moved to the city of Strassburg (Strasbourg), the capital of Alsace-Lorraine, then under German rule, in 1907, and enjoyed his various functions as director of the conservatory, music director of the municipal orchestra, and Kapellmeister at the opera. His opera Palestrina, generally regarded his most important work, dates from this time as well. The defeat of Germany in 1918 with the subsequent return of Alsace-Lorraine to France and Pfitzner's expulsion was a decisive moment in his life that finally turned him into a misanthropic right-wing radical.
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