In Spring 1885, Hans von Bülow invited Richard Strauss (1864-1949) to Meiningen as second conductor. At his debut concert, he played the piano (Mozart C minor concerto) and conducted one of his own compositions (Symphony in F minor). In the audience was Johannes Brahms. Brahms later was a regular visitor to Meiningen where Bülow had created a true cult from his oeuvre. Strauss wasted no time in asking Brahms for advice about  works he had finished or was then working on. The most significant composition from this brief period (Strauss left Meiningen in April 1886) was the Burleske. In 1886, Strauss referred to it as a scherzo, and dedicated it to Bülow. The conductor-pianist claimed he had insufficient time to study it, so its premiere had to wait for a few more years. It was finally publicly performed in 1892 by Eugéne d'Albert with Strauss conducting, by which time it was rechristened Burleske. We can detect the influences at work on Strauss with great ease in this work. He was only twenty years old, but besides traces of Brahms, we find Schumann and Wagner. But we also sense the influence of Russian music, which Bülow had introduced to Strauss (and let us not forget it was Bülow who premiered the Tchaikovsky First Concerto.) Further analysis shows many relationships with the scherzo from Brahms's 2nd piano concerto (parody or homage?). Despite its obvious ancestry, it remains the young Strauss's most original composition and many writers have described it as his first masterpiece.

The Burleske is in the form of a single grand movement, and its formal concept can be characterised as a transition between the classical recapitulation sonata form and the linear development associated with symphonic poems. Lengthy, expansive piano solos frequently interrupt the symphonic impetus of the work, and themes with different characters are introduced rhapsodically. Strauss later attempted two further piano compositions with orchestra (Parergon zur Sinfonia domestica op. 73 1924, and Panathenäenezug, op. 74 1927), both for left hand alone. This makes the youthful Burleske Strauss's only true piano concerto.