Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40, (German for A Hero's Life) is a tone poem by Richard Strauss. The work was completed in 1898, and heralds the composer’s more mature period in this genre.

Structure and analysis

Ein Heldenleben is a through-composed, circa fifty-minute work, performed without pauses, except for a dramatic general pause at the end of the first movement. The movements are titled as follows (later editions of the score may not show these titles, owing to the composer's request that they be removed):

# Der Held (The Hero) # Des Helden Widersacher (The Hero's Adversaries) # Des Helden Gefährtin (The Hero's Companion) # Des Helden Walstatt (The Hero at Battle) # Des Helden Friedenswerke (The Hero's Works of Peace) # Des Helden Weltflucht und Vollendung (The Hero's Retirement from this World and Consummation)

Throughout Ein Heldenleben Strauss employs the technique of leitmotif that Richard Wagner used so liberally, but almost always as elements of its enlarged sonata-rondo symphonic structure.

1. The Hero: The principal Hero theme, first appearing in unison horns and celli, has a soaring quality that evokes the initial theme from Ludwig van Beethoven's Third Symphony, the "Eroica": E-flat major triads ascending through an almost four-octave span, which the horn transverses throughout the entire theme. A contrasting lyrical theme first appears in high strings and winds in B major. A second heroic motive appears, outlining a stepwise descending fourth. Blazing trumpets sound a herald as the hero rides off to his adventures to the sound of a dominant seventh chord followed by a rather unexpected grand pause, the only prolonged silence throughout the entire piece.

2. The Hero's Adversaries: The adversaries are announced with chromatic and angular squeaks and snarls from the woodwinds (commencing with flute) and low brass: multiple motives in contrasting registers and timbres convey a sound of pettiness and mocking difficult to ignore. It is said that the adversaries represented by the sarcastic woodwinds are Strauss's critics, such as 19th-century Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick, who is memorably written into the score with an ominous four note leitmotif played by Wagner and bass tubas in parallel fifths. The hero's theme is all that can silence them, if only for a moment.

3. The Hero's Companion': A tender melody played by a solo violin depicts the companion—most likely the wife—of the Hero. In an extended accompanied cadenza filled with extremely detailed performance instructions by Strauss, after the fashion of an operatic recitative, the violin presents new motivic material, alternating with brief interjections in low strings, winds, and brass; a spacious third motive for the hero. During this section, the violin briefly foreshadows a theme which will appear fully later. The cadenza concludes and the new thematic material is combined in a cantabile episode commencing in G flat: the hero has found his romantic voice, and a blissful atmosphere is established. Fragments of the adversary motives briefly appear amid the somnolent hush. A fresh fanfare motive in offstage trumpets, repeated onstage, announces the beginning of the battle; the hero's supporters bid him awaken.

These three initial sections comprise an elaborate exposition, with elements of a multiple-movement symphony evident in their contrasting character and tempo. The remainder of the work will comprise development, recapitulation, and coda, with occasional new thematic material.

4. The Hero's Battlefield: In this first extended development section of the work, percussion sounds the advancement of the troops as the solo trumpet blares a call of war in the first appearance of "perfect" 3/4 time: a bizarre variation of the first "adversary" motive. A calamity of the foregoing motives and themes ensues as the conflict drags on. The sweet sound of the violins remind the Hero that his beloved is waiting for his return. A sequence of clamorous (and extremely challenging) trumpet fanfares suggest a turning point in the struggle, as the music approaches a harmonic climax in G flat, and the related E flat minor. Percussion is pervasive throughout the movement, which effectively depicts a vivid, militaristic battle sequence. In the end, the Hero's theme prevails over the hastily retreating adversaries, in an unprecedented compositional tapestry of human conflict. Victory is now depicted (as 4/4 time returns) in a modified recapitulation of the Hero theme as it appeared at the beginning of the piece, this time with a majestic repeated quaver accompaniment. A new cantabile theme makes its appearance in the trumpet, and an extended elaboration of this serves to preface the next section.

5. The Hero's Works of Peace: The Hero's victory is celebrated via themes of previous works, including Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Macbeth, Also sprach Zarathustra, Don Juan (the first to appear) and Don Quixote, and many other Strauss, including tone poems and Lieder. The peaceful and soaring melodies lead into the final section, assuaging the unrest building in our Hero.

6. The Hero's Retirement from this World and Consummation: Yet another new motive appears, commencing in a rapid descending E-flat triad, which introduces a new development of the hero theme: an elegy featuring harp, bassoon, English horn, and strings. The hero's previous works appear again in counterpoint. Shaking off worldly ideas and motivations, the Hero envisions larger and more extravagant adventures and searches for a release from his fears. The reappearance of the previous "Hanslick" motive brings in an agitato episode, as the Hero remembers the battles of his past, but is once again comforted by his companion. This is followed by a distinctly pastoral interlude featuring English horn, reminiscent of Rossini's William Tell Overture. The descending triad now appears slowly, cantabile, as the head of a new, peaceful theme in E flat: this is the theme foreshadowed during the violin cadenza. In a solemn final variation of the initial hero motive, the brass intones the last fanfare for the Hero as he retreats from his life, suggesting the beginnings of another tone poem (Also Sprach Zarathustra), a work often coupled with Ein Heldenleben.

Dedication and performances

Strauss dedicated the piece to the 27-year old Willem Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

However, it was premiered by the Frankfurter Museumsorchester on March 3, 1899 in Frankfurt, with the composer conducting.

Béla Bartók wrote a piano reduction of the piece in 1902, performing it on January 23, 1903 at the Vienna Tonkünstlerverein, impressing the audience.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for a large orchestra of the following forces:

woodwind: piccolo, 3 flutes, 3 oboes, English horn (doubling 4th oboe), clarinet in E-flat, 2 clarinets in B-flat, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon

brass: 8 horns in F, E and E-flat, 3 trumpets in B-flat (used offstage briefly), 2 trumpets in E-flat, 3 trombones, tenor tuba in B-flat (usually played on euphonium), tuba

percussion: timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, tenor drum, tam-tam

strings: 2 harps, violins i, ii (including an extensive solo violin part), violas, cellos, double basses

Recordings

There are many recordings of this work. Among the best are:

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Antal Dorati (Rec. 1953, available only on the original LP)

New York Philharmonic/Willem Mengelberg (Rec. 1928, Pearl Records)

Bavarian State Orchestra/Richard Strauss (Rec. 1941, Deutsche Grammophon; Dutton Labs)

Concertgebouw Orchestra/Willem Mengelberg (Rec. 1942, Teldec; Naxos Historical)

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham (Rec. 1947, Testament; Biddulph)

Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Fritz Reiner (Rec. 1954, RCA Living Stereo)

Staatskapelle Dresden/Karl Böhm (Rec. 1957, Deutsche Grammophon)

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Herbert von Karajan (Rec. 1959, Deutsche Grammophon)

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham (Rec. 1959, EMI [STEREO])

Philadelphia Orchestra/Eugene Ormandy (Rec. 1960, Sony Classical)

London Symphony Orchestra/Sir John Barbirolli (Rec. 1969, EMI)

Concertgebouw Orchestra/Bernard Haitink (Rec. 1970, Philips)

London Symphony Orchestra/Sir John Barbirolli (Rec. 1970, BBC Classics [IN CONCERT])

Staatskapelle Dresden/Rudolf Kempe (Rec. 1972, EMI)

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Herbert von Karajan (Rec. 1974, EMI)

Vienna Philharmonic/Andre Previn (Rec. 1988, Telarc)

Cleveland Orchestra/Christoph von Dohnanyi (Rec. 1992, London/DECCA)

San Francisco Symphony Orchestra/Herbert Blomstedt (Rec. 1994, London/DECCA)

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Ashkenazy (Rec. 2000, EXTON)

WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne/Semyon Bychkov (Rec. 2001, Avie)

Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Barenboim (Rec. 2003, Erato/Warner Classics)

Concertgebouw Orchestra/Mariss Jansons (Rec. 2004, RCO Live)

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle (Rec. 2005, EMI)

Staatskapelle Dresden/Fabio Luisi (Rec. 2007, Sony)

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Manfred Honeck (Rec. 2008, EXTON)

Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Bernard Haitink (Rec. 2010, CSO Resound)

Notes

External links

Download Ein Heldenleben

Category:Tone poems by Richard Strauss Category:1898 compositions

Richard Georg Strauss (11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Also sprach Zarathustra, An Alpine Symphony, and Metamorphosen. Strauss was also a prominent conductor throughout Germany and Austria.

Strauss, along with Gustav Mahler, represents the late flowering of German Romanticism after Richard Wagner, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmonic style.

Life and works

Early life and family

Strauss was born on 11 June 1864, in Munich, the son of Franz Strauss, who was the principal horn player at the Court Opera in Munich. In his youth, he received a thorough musical education from his father. He wrote his first music at the age of six, and continued to write music almost until his death.

During his boyhood Strauss attended orchestra rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra, and he also received private instruction in music theory and orchestration from an assistant conductor there. In 1874 Strauss heard his first Wagner operas, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. The influence of Wagner's music on Strauss's style was to be profound, but at first his musically conservative father forbade him to study it. Indeed, in the Strauss household, the music of Richard Wagner was viewed with deep suspicion, and it was not until the age of 16 that Strauss was able to obtain a score of Tristan und Isolde. In later life, Richard Strauss said that he deeply regretted the conservative hostility to Wagner's progressive works. Nevertheless, Strauss's father undoubtedly had a crucial influence on his son's developing taste, not least in Strauss's abiding love for the horn.

In 1882 he entered Munich University, where he studied Philosophy and Art History, but not music. He left a year later to go to Berlin, where he studied briefly before securing a post as assistant conductor to Hans von Bülow, who had been enormously impressed by the young composer's Serenade for wind instruments, composed when he was only 16 years of age. Strauss learned the art of conducting by observing Bülow in rehearsal. Bülow was very fond of the young man and decided that Strauss should be his successor as conductor of the Meiningen orchestra when Bülow resigned in 1885. Strauss's compositions at this time were indebted to the style of Robert Schumann or Felix Mendelssohn, true to his father's teachings. His remarkably mature Horn Concerto No. 1, Op. 11, is representative of this period and is a staple of modern horn repertoire.

Richard Strauss married soprano Pauline de Ahna on 10 September 1894. She was famous for being irascible, garrulous, eccentric and outspoken, but the marriage, to all appearances, was essentially happy and she was a great source of inspiration to him. Throughout his life, from his earliest songs to the final Four Last Songs of 1948, he preferred the soprano voice to all others, and all his operas contain important soprano roles.

The Strausses had one son, Franz, in 1897. Franz married Alice von Grab, a Jewish woman, in a Catholic ceremony in 1924. Franz and Alice had two sons, Richard and Christian.

Works

Solo and chamber works

Some of Strauss's first compositions were solo and chamber works. These pieces include: early compositions for piano solo in a conservative harmonic style, many of which are lost; a string quartet (opus 2); a cello sonata; a piano quartet; Violin Sonata in E flat (1888); as well as a handful of late pieces.

After 1890 Strauss composed very infrequently for chamber groups, his energies being almost completely absorbed with large-scale orchestral works and operas. Four of his chamber pieces are actually arrangements of portions of his operas, including the Daphne-Etude for solo violin, and the string Sextet which is the overture to his final opera Capriccio. His last independent chamber work, an Allegretto in E for violin and piano, dates from 1940.

Tone poems and other orchestral works

Strauss's style began to truly develop and change when, in 1885, he met Alexander Ritter, a noted composer and violinist, and the husband of one of Richard Wagner's nieces. It was Ritter who persuaded Strauss to abandon the conservative style of his youth, and begin writing tone poems. He also introduced Strauss to the essays of Richard Wagner and the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer. Strauss went on to conduct one of Ritter's operas, and at Strauss's request Ritter later wrote a poem describing the events depicted in Strauss's tone poem Death and Transfiguration.

The new influences from Ritter resulted in what is widely regarded as Strauss's first piece to show his mature personality, the tone poem Don Juan (1888), which displays a new kind of virtuosity in its bravura orchestral manner. Strauss went on to write a series of increasingly ambitious tone poems: Death and Transfiguration (Tod und Verklärung, 1889), Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks (Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, 1895), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Also sprach Zarathustra, 1896), Don Quixote (1897), Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life, 1898), Sinfonia Domestica (Domestic Symphony, 1903) and An Alpine Symphony (Eine Alpensinfonie, 1911–1915). One commentator has observed of these works that "no orchestra could exist without his tone poems, written to celebrate the glories of the post-Wagnerian symphony orchestra."

Solo instrument with orchestra

Strauss's output of works for solo instrument or instruments with orchestra was fairly extensive. The most famous include two concertos for French horn, which are still part of the standard repertoire of most French horn soloists; a Violin Concerto in D minor; the Burleske for piano and orchestra; the tone poem Don Quixote for cello, viola and orchestra; the well-known late Oboe Concerto in D major; and the Duet-Concertino for bassoon, clarinet and orchestra, which was one of his last works (1947).

Opera

(1922)]] Around the end of the 19th century, Strauss turned his attention to opera. His first two attempts in the genre, Guntram (1894) and Feuersnot (1901), were controversial works: Guntram was the first significant critical failure of Strauss's career, and Feuersnot was considered obscene by some critics.

In 1905, Strauss produced Salome, based on the play by Oscar Wilde, which produced a passionate reaction from audiences. The premiere was a major success, with the artists taking more than 38 curtain calls. Many later performances of the opera were also successful, not only with the general public but also with Strauss's peers: Maurice Ravel said that Salome was "stupendous", and Mahler described it as "a live volcano, a subterranean fire". Strauss reputedly financed his house in Garmisch-Partenkirchen completely from the revenues generated by the opera.

Strauss's next opera was Elektra (1909), which took his use of dissonance even further, in particular with the Elektra chord. Elektra was also the first opera in which Strauss collaborated with the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The two subsequently worked together on numerous occasions. For his later works with Hofmannsthal, Strauss moderated his harmonic language somewhat, which resulted in operas such as Der Rosenkavalier (1911) having great public success. Strauss continued to produce operas at regular intervals until 1942. With Hofmannsthal he created Ariadne auf Naxos (1912), Die Frau ohne Schatten (1918), Die ägyptische Helena (1927), and Arabella (1932). For Intermezzo (1923) Strauss provided his own libretto. Die schweigsame Frau (1934), was composed with Stefan Zweig as librettist; Friedenstag (1935–6) and Daphne (1937) both had a libretto by Joseph Gregor and Stefan Zweig; and Die Liebe der Danae (1940) was with Joseph Gregor. Strauss's final opera, Capriccio (1942), had a libretto by Clemens Krauss, although the genesis for it came from Stefan Zweig and Joseph Gregor.

Lieder

All his life Strauss produced Lieder. The Four Last Songs are among his best known, along with "Zueignung", "Cäcilie", "Morgen!", "Allerseelen", and others. In 1948, Strauss wrote his last work, the masterful and haunting Four Last Songs for soprano and orchestra. He reportedly composed them with Kirsten Flagstad in mind, and she gave the first performance, which was recorded. Strauss's songs have always been popular with audiences and performers, and are generally considered — along with many of his other compositions — to be masterpieces of the first rank.

Strauss in Nazi Germany

The Nazi Reich forms the Reichsmusikkammer

In March 1933, when Richard Strauss was 68, Hitler and the Nazi Party rose to power. Strauss never joined the Nazi party, and studiously avoided Nazi forms of greeting. For reasons of expediency, however, he was initially drawn into cooperating with the early Nazi regime in the hope that Hitler — an ardent Wagnerian and music lover who had admired Strauss's work since viewing Salome in 1907 — would promote German art and culture. Strauss's need to protect his Jewish daughter-in-law and Jewish grandchildren also motivated his behavior, in addition to his determination to preserve and conduct the music of banned composers such as Mahler and Debussy.

In 1933, Strauss wrote in his private notebook:

I consider the Streicher-Goebbels Jew-baiting as a disgrace to German honour, as evidence of incompetence — the basest weapon of untalented, lazy mediocrity against a higher intelligence and greater talent.

Meanwhile, far from being an admirer of Strauss's work, Joseph Goebbels maintained expedient cordiality with Strauss only for a period. Goebbels wrote in his diary:

Unfortunately we still need him, but one day we shall have our own music and then we shall have no further need of this decadent neurotic.

in 1927 and (here) 1938.]] Nevertheless, because of Strauss's international eminence, in November 1933 he was appointed to the post of president of the Reichsmusikkammer, the State Music Bureau. Strauss, who had lived through numerous political regimes and had no interest in politics, decided to accept the position but to remain apolitical, a decision which would eventually become untenable. He wrote to his family, "I made music under the Kaiser, and under Ebert. I'll survive under this one as well."

Strauss privately scorned Goebbels and called him "a pipsqueak." In order to gain Goebbels' cooperation, however, in extending the German music copyright laws from 30 years to 50 years, in 1933 Strauss dedicated an orchestral song, Das Bächlein ("The Little Brook") to him.

Strauss attempted to ignore Nazi bans on performances of works by Debussy, Mahler, and Mendelssohn. He also continued to work on a comic opera, Die schweigsame Frau, with his Jewish friend and librettist Stefan Zweig. When the opera was premiered in Dresden in 1935, Strauss insisted that Zweig's name appear on the theatrical billing, much to the ire of the Nazi regime. Hitler and Goebbels avoided attending the opera, and it was halted after three performances and subsequently banned by the Third Reich.

On 17 June 1935, Strauss wrote a letter to Stefan Zweig, in which he stated:

Do you believe I am ever, in any of my actions, guided by the thought that I am 'German'? Do you suppose Mozart was consciously 'Aryan' when he composed? I recognise only two types of people: those who have talent and those who have none.

This letter to Zweig was intercepted by the Gestapo and sent to Hitler. Strauss was subsequently dismissed from his post as Reichsmusikkammer president in 1935. The 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics nevertheless used Strauss's Olympische Hymne, which he had composed in 1934. Strauss's seeming relationship with the Nazis in the 1930s attracted criticism from some noted musicians, including Arturo Toscanini, who in 1933 had said, "To Strauss the composer I take off my hat; to Strauss the man I put it back on again," when Strauss had accepted the presidency of the Reichsmusikkammer. Much of Strauss's motivation in his conduct during the Third Reich was, however, to protect his Jewish daughter-in-law Alice and his Jewish grandchildren from persecution. Both of his grandsons were bullied at school, but Strauss used his considerable influence to prevent the boys or their mother from being sent to concentration camps.

Friedenstag

In 1938, when the entire nation was preparing for war, Strauss created Friedenstag (Peace Day), a one-act opera set in a besieged fortress during the Thirty Years' War. The work is essentially a hymn to peace and a thinly veiled criticism of the Third Reich. With its contrasts between freedom and enslavement, war and peace, light and dark, this work has a close affinity with Beethoven's Fidelio. Productions of the opera ceased shortly after the outbreak of war in 1939.

When his Jewish daughter-in-law Alice was placed under house arrest in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1938, Strauss used his connections in Berlin, including the Berlin intendant Heinz Tietjen, to secure her safety. He drove to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in order to argue, albeit unsuccessfully, for the release of his son Franz's Jewish mother-in-law, Marie von Grab. Strauss also wrote several letters to the SS pleading for the release of her children who were also held in camps; his letters were ignored.

In 1942, Strauss moved with his family back to Vienna, where Alice and her children could be protected by Baldur von Schirach, the Gauleiter of Vienna. Strauss was unable, however, to protect his Jewish relatives completely; in early 1944, while Strauss was away, Alice and his son Franz were abducted by the Gestapo and imprisoned for two nights. Only Strauss's personal intervention at this point was able to save them, and he was able to take the two of them back to Garmisch, where they remained under house arrest until the end of the war.

Metamorphosen

Strauss completed the composition of Metamorphosen, a work for 23 solo strings, in 1945. The title and inspiration for the work comes from a profoundly self-examining poem by Goethe, which Strauss had considered setting as a choral work. Generally regarded as one of the masterpieces of the string repertoire, Metamorphosen contains Strauss's most sustained outpouring of tragic emotion. Conceived and written during the blackest days of World War II, the piece expresses in music Strauss's mourning of, among other things, the destruction of German culture — including the bombing of every great opera house in the nation. At the end of the war, Strauss wrote in his private diary:

The most terrible period of human history is at an end, the twelve year reign of bestiality, ignorance and anti-culture under the greatest criminals, during which Germany's 2000 years of cultural evolution met its doom.

In April 1945, Strauss was apprehended by American soldiers at his Garmisch estate. As he descended the staircase he announced to Lieutenant Milton Weiss of the U.S. Army, "I am Richard Strauss, the composer of Rosenkavalier and Salome." Lt. Weiss, who, as it happened, was also a musician, nodded in recognition. An 'Off Limits' sign was subsequently placed on the lawn to protect Strauss; and the American oboist, John de Lancie, asked Strauss to compose an oboe concerto. Initially dismissive of the idea, Strauss completed this late masterpiece, his Oboe Concerto, before the end of the year.

Final upsurge of genius

The metaphor "Indian Summer" is often used by journalists, biographers, and music critics to describe Strauss's late upsurge of genius from 1942 through the end of his life. The horrifying events of World War II seemed to bring the composer — who had grown old, tired, and a little jaded — into focus. The major works of the last years of Strauss's life, written in his late 70s and 80s, have a luminosity which matches anything he had composed earlier in his life, and they surpass most of them in emotional depth. These pieces include, among others, his Horn Concerto No. 2, Metamorphosen, his Oboe Concerto, and his masterful and haunting Four Last Songs.

The Four Last Songs, composed shortly before Strauss's death, deal poetically with the subject of dying. The last, "At Sunset" (Im Abendrot), ends with the line "Is this perhaps death?" The question is not answered in words, but instead Strauss quotes the "transfiguration theme" from his earlier tone poem, Death and Transfiguration — symbolizing the transfiguration and fulfillment of the soul after death.

Death and legacy

Richard Strauss died at the age of 85 on 8 September, 1949, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Georg Solti, who had arranged Strauss's 85th birthday celebration, also directed an orchestra during Strauss's burial. During the singing of the famous trio from Rosenkavalier, Solti described how "each singer broke down in tears and dropped out of the ensemble, but they recovered themselves and we all ended together." Strauss's wife, Paulina, died eight months later, on 13 May, 1950, at the age of 88.

During his lifetime Strauss was considered the greatest composer of the first half of the 20th century, and his music had a profound influence on the development of 20th-century music. There were few 20th-century composers who compared with Strauss in terms of orchestral imagination, and no composer since Wagner made a more significant contribution to the history of opera. And Strauss's late works, modelled on "the divine Mozart at the end of a life full of thankfulness," are perhaps the most remarkable works by any octogenarian composer.

Strauss himself declared in 1947 with characteristic self-deprecation, "I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer." The Canadian pianist Glenn Gould described Strauss in 1962 as "the greatest musical figure who has lived in this century."

Strauss as a conductor

Strauss, as conductor, made a large number of recordings, both of his own music as well as music by German and Austrian composers.

His 1929 performances of Till Eulenspiegel and Don Juan with the Berlin State Opera Orchestra have long been considered the best of his early electrical recordings; even the original 78 rpm discs had superior sound for their time, and the performances were top-notch and quite exciting at times, despite a noticeable mistake by the Horn soloist in the famous opening passage of Till Eulenspiegel.

One of the more interesting of Strauss's recordings is perhaps the first complete performance of his An Alpine Symphony, made in 1941 and later released by EMI, because Strauss used the full complement of percussion instruments required in this spectacular symphony. The intensity of the performance rivaled that of the digital recording Herbert von Karajan made many years later with the Berlin Philharmonic.

Music critic Harold C. Schonberg in The Great Conductors (1967), says that while Strauss was a very fine conductor, he often put scant effort into his recordings. Schonberg focused primarily on Strauss's recordings of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, as well as noting that Strauss played a breakneck version of Beethoven's 9th Symphony in about 45 minutes. Concerning the Beethoven 7th symphony, Schonberg wrote, "There is almost never a ritard or a change in expression or nuance. The slow movement is almost as fast as the following vivace; and the last movement, with a big cut in it, is finished in 4 minutes, 25 seconds. (It should run between 7 and 8 minutes.)" Schonberg also complained that the Mozart symphony had "no force, no charm, no inflection, with a metronomic rigidity."

Peter Gutmann's 1994 review for ClassicalNotes.com says the performances of the Beethoven 5th and 7th symphonies, as well as Mozart's last three symphonies, are actually quite good, even if they are sometimes unconventional. Gutman wrote:

The Koch CDs represent all of Strauss's recordings of works by other composers. The best of his readings of his own famous tone poems and other music are collected on DGG 429 925-2, 3 CDs. It is true, as the critics suggest, that the readings forego overt emotion, but what emerges instead is a solid sense of structure, letting the music speak convincingly for itself. It is also true that Strauss's tempos are generally swift, but this, too, contributes to the structural cohesion and in any event is fully in keeping with our modern outlook in which speed is a virtue and attention spans are defined more by MTV clips and news sound bites than by evenings at the opera and thousand page novels.

Koch Legacy has also released Strauss's recordings of overtures by Gluck, Carl Maria von Weber, Peter Cornelius, and Wagner. The preference for German and Austrian composers in Germany in the 1920s through the 1940s was typical of the German nationalism that existed after World War I. Strauss clearly capitalized on national pride for the great German-speaking composers.

There were many other recordings, including some taken from radio broadcasts and concerts, during the 1930s and early 1940s. The sheer volume of recorded performances would undoubtedly yield some definitive performances from a very capable and rather forward-looking conductor.

In 1944, Strauss celebrated his 80th birthday and conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in recordings of his own major orchestral works, as well as his seldom-heard Schlagobers ("Whipped Cream") ballet music. Some find more feeling in these performances than in Strauss's earlier recordings, which were recorded on the Magnetophon tape recording equipment. Vanguard Records later issued the recordings on LPs. Some of these recordings have been reissued on CD by Preiser and are of remarkable fidelity.

Strauss also made live-recording player piano music rolls for the Hupfeld system, all of which survive today.

Richard Strauss was the composer of the music on the first CD to be commercially released: Deutsche Grammophon's 1983 release of their 1980 recording of Herbert von Karajan conducting the Alpine Symphony.

Works

See List of compositions by Richard Strauss.

Selected major works

Operas

See List of operas by Richard Strauss.

Ballet music

Josephslegende (The Legend of Joseph), Op. 63 (1914)

Schlagobers (Whipped Cream), Op. 70 (1921/2)

Tone poems

Aus Italien (From Italy), Op. 16 (1886)

Don Juan, Op. 20 (1889)

Macbeth, Op. 23 (1888/90)

Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration), Op. 24 (1888–89)

Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks), Op. 28 (1895)

Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra), Op. 30 (1896)

Don Quixote, Op. 35 (1898)

Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life), Op. 40 (1899)

Symphonia Domestica (Domestic Symphony), Op. 53 (1904)

Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony), Op. 64 (1915)

Other orchestral works

Symphony in D minor (1880)

Symphony No. 2 in F minor, Op. 12 (1883)

Festive Prelude for orchestra with organ (1913)

Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, suite for orchestra Op. 60 (1917)

Film music for Der Rosenkavalier (1925)

Japanese Festival Music (1940)

Metamorphosen, for 23 solo strings (1945)

Keyboard

Funf Klavierstucke, Op. 3 (1880-81)

Sonata for piano in B minor, Op. 5 (1880-81)

Concertante

Romance for Clarinet and Orchestra (1879)

Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 8 (1882)

Horn Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 11 (1882/83)

Romance for Cello and Orchestra (1883)

Burleske for piano and orchestra (1886–1890)

Parergon zur Symphonia Domestica, for piano (left hand) and orchestra, Op. 73 (1925; ded. Paul Wittgenstein)

Panathenäenzug, for piano (left hand) and orchestra, Op. 74 (1926–1927; ded. Wittgenstein)

Horn Concerto No. 2 in E flat major (1942)

Oboe Concerto in D major (1945)

Duett-Concertino, for clarinet and bassoon with string orchestra (1947)

Vocal/Choral

Acht Lieder aus Letzte Blätter, Op. 10 (1885)

Ruhe, meine Seele! ("Rest, My Soul!") Op. 27 No. 1

Cäcilie, Op. 27 No. 2

Heimliche Aufforderung ("Secret Invitation"), Op. 27 No. 3

Morgen! ("Tomorrow!"), Op. 27 No. 4

Zwei Gesänge, Op. 34 (1896/97) — 1. Der Abend 2. Hymne

Wiegenlied ("Lullaby"), Op. 41 No. 1

Deutsche Motette, Op. 62 (1913)

Olympische Hymne, for chorus and orchestra (1934)

Die Göttin im Putzzimmer (1935)

Männerchöre (1935)

An den Baum Daphne (1943)

Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) (1948)

Chamber

Sonata for Cello and Piano in F, Op. 6 (1883)

Violin Sonata in E-flat, Op. 18 (1888)

Notes

Sources

Kennedy, Michael (1999). Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58173-7.

Kennedy, Michael. "Richard Strauss", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2

Kennedy, Michael (2006). The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4

Gilliam, Bryan. "Richard Strauss", in Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed August 19, 2005), (subscription access) (This article is very different from the one in the 1980 Grove; in particular, the analysis of Strauss's behavior during the Nazi period is more detailed.)

Dubal, David. The Essential Canon of Classical Music, North Point Press, 2003. ISBN 0-86547-664-0

Selective bibliography

Kennedy, Michael (1999). Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58173-7.

Del Mar, Norman (1962). Richard Strauss. London: Barrie & Jenkins. ISBN 0-214-15735-0.

Tuchman, Barbara W. (1966, reprinted 1980). The Proud Tower chapter 6. Macmillan, London. ISBN 0-333-30645-7.

Gilliam, Bryan (1999). The Life of Richard Strauss. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-57895-7.

Osborne, Charles (1991). The Complete Operas of Richard Strauss. New York City: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80459-X.

Wilhelm, Kurt (1989). Richard Strauss: An Intimate Portrait. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01459-0.

Youmans, Charles (2005). Richard Strauss's Orchestral Music and the German Intellectual Tradition: the Philosophical Roots of Musical Modernism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34573-1.

Karpath, Ludwig and Strauss, Richard (1905–1936). The handwritten correspondence between Richard Strauss and Ludwig Karpath, covering 31 years was acquired by the National Library of Austria in 1962 from the daughters of Dr. Alfred Marill who was Mr. Karpath's attorney. It consists of approximately 150 items covering Strauss relationships with the Vienna State Opera and other musical events of the period. It stops at the death of Ludwig Karpath in 1936. Dr. Alfred Marill was Mr. Karpath's executor. The terms of Karpath's will stipulated that the correspondence between Karpath and Strauss not be published until after Richard Strauss's death. In keeping with these terms Dr. Marill transported it to the United States when he emigrated in 1940. After Dr. Marill's death his daughters provided the letters to the library so that Mr. Karpath's wishes could be carried out. There is no evidence that these letters have been published.

External links

Richard Strauss online

Richard Strauss Institute, in English

In America with Richard Strauss: Elisabeth Schumann's 1921 diary

Category:1864 births Category:1949 deaths Category:20th-century classical composers Category:German conductors (music) Category:Opera composers Category:Opera managers Category:People from Munich Category:People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Category:Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Category:Romantic composers Category:Ballet composers Category:German composers Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society Category:General Directors of the Vienna State Opera Category:Music directors of the Berlin State Opera

Clemens Heinrich Krauss (March 31, 1893May 16, 1954) was an Austrian conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss.

Biography

Krauss was born in Vienna, the out-of-wedlock child of Clementine Krauss, then a 15-year-old dancer in the Vienna Imperial Opera Ballet, later a leading actress and operetta singer, who was a niece of the prominent nineteenth-century operatic soprano, Gabrielle Krauss (1842-1904). His natural father, the chevalier Hector Baltazzi (1851-1916), belonged to a family of wealthy Phanariot bankers resident in Vienna. Baltazzi's older sister Helene was married to Baron Albin Vetsera and was the mother of Baroness Mary Vetsera, who was thus Clemens Krauss' first cousin.

As a boy, Krauss was a chorister in the Hofkapelle (Imperial Choir). He attended the Vienna Conservatory, graduating in 1912. He studied composition with Hermann Graedener and theory with Richard Heuberger. After graduation he was chorus master in the Brno Theater (1912-1913). There he made his conducting debut in 1913. The famous Romanian soprano Viorica Ursuleac, with whom he often performed, was his second wife.

Career

Krauss made the rounds of regional centers, conducting in Riga (1913-1914), Nuremberg (1915), and Stettin (1916-1921), now known as Szczecin. The latter appointment gave him ample opportunity to travel to Berlin to hear Arthur Nikisch conduct the Berlin Philharmonic, a major influence. Krauss's next post was back in Austria, where he became director of the opera and symphony concerts in Graz. In 1922 he joined the conducting staff of the Vienna State Opera and teacher of the conducting class at the State Academy of Germany. In 1923 he became conductor of the Vienna Tonkünstler Concerts until 1927, and Intendant of the opera in Frankfurt am Main and director of the Museum Concerts in 1924, until 1929.

Krauss visited the United States in 1929, conducting in Philadelphia and with the New York Philharmonic. Also in 1929 he became director of the Vienna State Opera. Its orchestra, in its independent concert form as the Vienna Philharmonic, appointed him its music director in 1930. He was a regular conductor at the Salzburg Festival from 1926 to 1934. In 1930 he conducted Alban Berg's Wozzeck.

In 1933 and 1934 Krauss gave up his Vienna positions, becoming director of the Berlin State Opera in 1935 after Erich Kleiber resigned in protest over Nazi rule. In 1933 he took over the preparations for the premieres of Strauss's Arabella when the conductor Fritz Busch (another non-Jewish anti-Nazi) left. Krauss's own position on Nazism was unclear, although he enjoyed a close relationship with Nazi official Alfred Frauenfeld and it has been claimed that he sought Nazi Party membership in 1933. In 1937 he was appointed Intendant of the National Theatre Munich, following the resignation there of Hans Knappertsbusch. He became a close friend of Richard Strauss, for whom he wrote the libretto to the opera Capriccio which he premiered in Munich in 1942. Also, he conducted the premieres of Strauss's operas Friedenstag and Die Liebe der Danae. During the early 1940s he taught at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg where among his pupils was composer Roman Toi.

After the Munich opera house was bombed, shutting it down, Krauss returned to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic until it closed shortly before the end of the War (1944-45). After the War, Allied officials investigated his pro-Nazi activities and because of them forbade him from appearing in public until 1947. They also found that he had frequently acted to assist a number of individual Jews escape the Third Reich machine. When his ban was lifted he resumed frequently conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, including its famous New Year's Day concerts.

Following Krauss's rehabilitation he conducted at Covent Garden in London from 1951 and the Bayreuth Festival in 1953. He died during a visit to Mexico City, and is now buried along with his wife, who died in 1985, in Ehrwald, Austria.

He did not make many recordings; but his 1950 performance of Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus, made in Vienna, is still regarded by some as the best one. His 1953 live performance of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle from Bayreuth is highly regarded. A performance with the Vienna Symphony of Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, reissued on more than one inexpensive label since its original appearance on Vox Records, is also one of the few recordings featuring pianist Friedrich Wührer available on compact disc.

References

Joseph Gregor, Clemens Krauss: Seine Musikalische Sendung (Munich, 1953)

G. K. Kende and Signe Scanzoni, Der Prinzipal: Clemens Krauss-Fakten, Vergleiche, Rückschlüsse (Berlin, 1988) ISBN 3-7952-0549-2

External links

Clemens Krauss Discography

Category:1893 births Category:1954 deaths Category:Austrian conductors (music) Category:Austrian musicians Category:Austrian people of Greek descent Category:Music directors (opera) Category:Opera librettists Category:Opera managers Category:People from Vienna Category:Music directors of the Berlin State Opera