Richard Strauss avoided making available arrangements of music from his popular opera Der Rosenkavalier, and this seems contrary to the expedient way in which he handled his music. Various passages of the opera, however, lend themselves to being excerpted. Notable among them is the final scene, which is often presented by itself in concert, as are the waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier, which occur in various arrangements.

Despite the immediate and profound popularity of Der Rosenkavalier, Strauss was reluctant to create, let alone sanction, a suite from the opera or any other kind of work derived from the score. (This stance differs from the way he treated the first version of Ariadne auf Naxos [1912] which was not only revised in 1917, but the incidental music for the play that preceded it became the basis for the suite Der Buerger als Edelmann [1917].) In 1924, however, the librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal was involved with plans to film Der Rosenkavalier, and he persuaded Strauss to arrange music from the opera to accompany the film. Since this occurred approximately several years before sound was introduced into film, the score would have been performed by an orchestra while the film was projected.

The film itself was divided into two parts, the first starting with Baron Ochs's visit to the Marschallin and followed by flashbacks which gave some background on both characters. The cinematic narrative then went on to the events that occur in the second act of the opera; that is, the presentation of the rose; a love scene between Octavian and Sophie; the duel between Octavian and Ochs; and, at the end, Ochs retired to bed and reminiscing while waltzes play in the background. The second part introduced characters and situations that are not part of the opera, such as the Feldmarschall, who is informed of the events and returns to find a situation on par with Mozart's Marriage of Figaro when it comes to complications. The drama resolves, as it does in the opera, but the film required a different score than occurs in Der Rosenkavalier, and rather than undertake a new project, Strauss allowed Otto Singer and Karl Alwin to arrange the music. This is the first of the sanctioned arrangements, and this kind of treatment opened the door to other, popular arrangements of music from Der Rosenkavalier that circulated without the composer's imprimatur. In response to this, Strauss made his own arrangement of waltz sequences in 1934 and 1944; at the same time, other orchestral arrangements by various individuals emerged throughout the composer's lifetime. In fact, the best-known suite of music from the opera is an anonymous arrangement that Strauss eventually approved in 1945, and which is generally accepted.

The music opens with the horn call that occurs at the opening of the opera and proceeds to various moments from different parts of the work. The emphasis is on the waltz tunes, which pervade the suite, rather than some of the other, vocal music. The colorful and evocative orchestration famous in the opera is retained in the suite; in juxtaposing ideas from various parts of the opera, though, the timbres change more rapidly than on stage. For those who know the opera, the suite recalls many favorite moments; for those unfamiliar with Der Rosenkavalier the suite is an excellent introduction to the work.

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