Richard Strauss - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Strauss

Richard Strauss
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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; his tone
poems, including Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks,
Also sprach Zarathustra, Ein Heldenleben, Symphonia Domestica, and An Alpine
Symphony; and other instrumental works such as Metamorphosen and his Oboe Concerto.
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.

Contents
1 Early life and family
2 Career as composer
2.1 Solo and chamber works and large ensembles
2.2 Tone poems and other orchestral works
2.3 Solo instrument with orchestra
2.4 Opera
2.5 Lieder and choral
2.6 Strauss in Nazi Germany
2.6.1 Reichsmusikkammer
2.6.2 Friedenstag
2.6.3 Metamorphosen
2.6.4 Last works
2.7 Death and legacy
3 Strauss as a conductor
3.1 Modern critical reception of selected recordings conducted by
Strauss
4 Selected works
4.1 Keyboard and chamber
4.2 Tone poems and other orchestral works
4.2.1 First cycle of tone poems
4.2.2 Second cycle of tone poems
4.2.3 Ballet music
4.2.4 Other orchestral works
4.3 Solo instrument with orchestra
4.4 Opera
4.5 Vocal/choral
5 References
6 External links

Richard Strauss, by Max Liebermann, 1918

Signature of Dr. Richard Strauss

Early life and family

Strauss was born on 11 June 1864 in Munich, the son of Josephine (ne Pschorr) and Franz Strauss, who was the principal horn player at
the Court Opera in Munich.[1] In his youth, he received a thorough musical education from his father. He wrote his first composition 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 (now the Bavarian State Orchestra), and he also
received private instruction in music theory and orchestration from an assistant conductor there. In 1872 he started receiving violin
instruction at the Royal School of Music from Benno Walter, his father's cousin. In 1874 Strauss heard his first Wagner operas, Lohengrin
and Tannhuser. 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, Strauss said that he deeply regretted the
conservative hostility to Wagner's progressive works.[2] Nevertheless, Strauss's father undoubtedly had a crucial influence on his son's

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developing taste, not least in Strauss's abiding love for the horn.
In early 1882 in Vienna he gave the first performance of his Violin Concerto in D minor, playing a piano
reduction of the orchestral part himself, with his teacher and "cousin" Benno Walter as soloist. The same year
he entered Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, 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 Blow, 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
Blow in rehearsal. Blow was very fond of the young man and decided that Strauss should be his successor as
conductor of the Meiningen orchestra when Blow 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 Horn
Concerto No. 1, Op. 11, is representative of this period and is a staple of modern horn repertoire.
Strauss age 22

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.

Career as composer
Solo and chamber works and large ensembles
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; two piano Trios
(1877 and 1878); a string quartet (1881); a Piano Sonata (1882); a cello sonata (1882); a piano quartet
(1885); a Violin Sonata in E flat (1888); as well as a Serenade (1882) and a longer Suite (1884) both
scored for double wind quintet plus 2 additional horns and contrabassoon.
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.
He also composed two large-scale works for large wind ensemble during this period: Sonatina no 1 "From an Invalid's Workshop" (1943)
and Symphony for Winds "Happy Workshop" (1946)both scored for double wind quintet plus two additional horns, a third clarinet in C,
bassett horn, bass clarinet, and contabassoon.

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[3] 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 (1889), Till
Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks (1895), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1896), Don Quixote
(1897), Ein Heldenleben (1898), Symphonia Domestica (1903) and An Alpine
Symphony (19111915). 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."[4]

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Strauss with his wife and son, 1910

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James Hepokoski notes a shift in Strauss's technique in the tone poems, occurring between 1892 and 1893. It was after this point that
Strauss rejected the philosophy of Schopenhauer, and began more forcefully critiquing the institution of the symphony and the symphonic
poem, thereby differentiating the second cycle of tone poems from the first.

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 horn, which are still part of the standard repertoire of most 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).

Burleske

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Burleske (188586), performed by Neal O'Doan

with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Opera
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.[5]
In 1905, Strauss produced Salome, a somewhat dissonant modernist opera 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.[6] 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",[7] and Mahler described it as "a live volcano, a subterranean
fire".[8] 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: he
used a more lush, melodic late-Romantic style based on Wagnerian chromatic harmonies that he
had used in his tone poems, with much less dissonance, and exhibiting immense virtuosity in
orchestral writing and tone color. This resulted in operas such as Der Rosenkavalier (1911) having
great public success. Strauss continued to produce operas at regular intervals until 1942. With
Richard Strauss engraved by
Hofmannsthal he created Ariadne auf Naxos (1912), Die Frau ohne Schatten (1918), Die
Ferdinand Schmutzer (1922)
gyptische 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
(19356) 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.
According to statistics compiled by Operabase, in number of operas performed worldwide over the five seasons from 2008/09 to 2012/13,
Strauss was the second most-performed 20th-century opera composer; Puccini was the first and Benjamin Britten the third.[9] Strauss tied
with Handel as the eighth most-performed opera composer from any century over those five seasons.[9] Over the five seasons from 2008/09
to 2012/13, Strauss's top five most-performed operas were Salome, Ariadne auf Naxos, Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra, and Die Frau ohne
Schatten.[10]

Lieder and choral

All his life Strauss produced Lieder. The Four Last Songs are among his best known, along with Zueignung, Ccilie, Morgen!, Allerseelen,
and others. In 1948, Strauss wrote his last work, the 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 by musicologistsalong with many of his other compositionsto be masterpieces.

Strauss in Nazi Germany

Reichsmusikkammer

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In March 1933, when Strauss was 68, Adolf 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 Hitleran ardent Wagnerian and music lover who had admired Strauss's work since viewing Salome in 1907would
promote German art and culture. Strauss's need to protect his Jewish daughter-in-law and Jewish grandchildren also motivated his
behavior,[11] 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 incompetencethe basest weapon of
untalented, lazy mediocrity against a higher intelligence and greater talent.[12]
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.[13]
Nevertheless, because of Strauss's international eminence, in November 1933 he was appointed to
the post of president of the newly founded 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."[14] In 1935 he wrote in his journal:
In November of 1933, the minister Goebbels nominated me president of the
Reichsmusikkammer without obtaining my prior agreement. I was not consulted. I
accepted this honorary office because I hoped that I would be able to do some good and
prevent worse misfortunes, if from now onwards German musical life were going to be, as
it was said, "reorganized" by amateurs and ignorant place-seekers.[14]
Strauss privately scorned Goebbels and called him "a pipsqueak."[15] However, in 1933 he
dedicated an orchestral song, Das Bchlein ("The Little Brook"), to Goebbels, in order to gain his
cooperation in extending German music copyright laws from 30 years to 50 years.[16]
Strauss was on the cover of TIME in
Strauss attempted to ignore Nazi bans on performances of works by Debussy, Mahler, and
1927 and (here) 1938
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.[17]

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.[18]
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.[19] 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 being sent to concentration camps.[20]
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

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Berlin, including opera-house General 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.[21]
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. However, Strauss
was unable 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. Strauss's personal intervention at this point saved them, and he was able to take
them back to Garmisch, where the two remained under house arrest until the end of the
war.

Strauss at Garmisch in 1938

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.[22] 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 Strauss's mourning of, among other things, the destruction of German
cultureincluding 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.[23]
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 was also a
musician, nodded in recognition. An "Off Limits" sign was subsequently placed on the lawn to protect Strauss.[24] The American oboist
John de Lancie, who knew Strauss's orchestral writing for oboe thoroughly, was in the army unit, and asked Strauss to compose an oboe
concerto. Initially dismissive of the idea, Strauss completed this late work, his Oboe Concerto, before the end of the year.
Last works
The metaphor "Indian Summer" is often used by journalists, biographers, and music critics to describe Strauss's late creative upsurge from
1942 to the end of his life. The events of World War II seemed to bring the composerwho had grown old, tired, and a little jadedinto
focus.[25] The major works of the last years of Strauss's life, written in his late 70s and 80s, include, among others, his Horn Concerto No.
2, Metamorphosen, his Oboe Concerto, and his Four Last Songs.
The Four Last Songs, composed shortly before Strauss's death, deal 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 Transfigurationmeant to symbolize the transfiguration and fulfillment of the soul after death.

Death and legacy

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.[26] The conductor later described how, during the singing of the famous trio from
Rosenkavalier, "each singer broke down in tears and dropped out of the ensemble, but they recovered
themselves and we all ended together."[27] Strauss's wife, Pauline de Ahna, died eight months later, on
13 May 1950, at the age of 88.[28]
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 he made a
significant contribution to the history of post-Wagnerian opera. Strauss's late works, modelled on "the
divine Mozart at the end of a life full of thankfulness,"[29] are widely considered the greatest works by
any octogenarian composer.
Stamp issued in 1954

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

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Strauss in 1962 as "the greatest musical figure who has lived in this century."[30]
Until the 1980s, Strauss was regarded by some post-modern musicologists as a conservative, backward-looking composer, but
re-examination of and new research on the composer has re-evaluated his place as that of a modernist,[31] albeit one who still utilized and
sometimes revered tonality and lush orchestration.[32] Strauss is noted for his pioneering subtleties of orchestration, combined with an
advanced harmonic style, advances which influenced the composers who followed him.
Strauss has always been popular with audiences in the concert hall and continues to be so. He has consistently been in the top 10 composers
most performed by symphony orchestras in the USA and Canada over the period 2002-2010.[33] He is also in the top 5 of 20th Century
composers (born after 1860) in terms of the number of currently available recordings of his works.[34]

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. In the first complete performance of his An Alpine Symphony, made in 1941 and later
released by EMI, Strauss used the full complement of percussion instruments required in this
symphony.
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.

Richard Strauss

Strauss also made live-recording player piano music rolls for the Hupfeld system and in 1906 ten recordings for the reproducing piano
Welte-Mignon all of which survive today. Strauss was also 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.

Modern critical reception of selected recordings conducted by Strauss

Pierre Boulez has said that Strauss the conductor was "a complete master of his trade".[35] Music critic Harold C. Schonberg says that,
while Strauss was a very fine conductor, he often put scant effort into his recordings.[36] Schonberg focused primarily on Strauss's
recordings of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 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 Beethoven's 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.)" [37] He 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. Gutmann wrote:
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.[38]

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Selected works
Keyboard and chamber
Fnf Klavierstcke, Op. 3 (188081)
Sonata for piano in B minor, Op. 5 (188081)
Sonata for Cello and Piano in F, Op. 6 (1883)

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

Stimmungsbilder, Op. 9 (piano)

Tone poems and other orchestral works

First cycle of tone poems
Aus Italien (From Italy), Op. 16 (1886)
Don Juan, Op. 20 (1888)
Macbeth, Op. 23 (1888/90)

Tod und Verklrung (Death and Transfiguration), Op. 24

(188889)

Second cycle of tone poems

Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel's
Merry Pranks), Op. 28 (1895)
Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke 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)

Ballet music
Josephslegende (The Legend of Joseph), Op. 63 (1914)
Schlagobers (Whipped Cream), Op. 70 (1921/2)

Verklungene Feste: Tanzvisionen aus zwei Jahrhunderten,

(Bygone Celebrations: Dance Visions from Two Centuries),
(1940).

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)
Dance suite from keyboard pieces by Franois Couperin,
TrV 245, 1923.

Film music for Der Rosenkavalier (1925)

Japanese Festival Music (1940)
Divertimento for chamber orchestra after keyboard pieces
by Couperin, Op.86 (1942)
Metamorphosen, for 23 solo strings (1945)

Solo instrument with orchestra

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 (18861890)
Don Quixote for cello, viola and orchestra
Parergon zur Symphonia Domestica, for piano (left hand)
and orchestra, Op. 73 (1925; ded. Paul Wittgenstein)

Panathenenzug, for piano (left hand) and orchestra, Op. 74

(19261927; 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)

Opera
Vocal/choral
Acht Lieder aus Letzte Bltter, Op. 10 (1885)
Ruhe, meine Seele! ("Rest, My Soul!"), Op. 27 No. 1
Ccilie, Op. 27 No. 2
Heimliche Aufforderung ("Secret Invitation"), Op. 27 No. 3
Morgen! ("Tomorrow!"), Op. 27 No. 4
Zwei Gesnge, Op. 34 (1896/97) 1. Der Abend 2. Hymne
Wiegenlied ("Lullaby"), Op. 41 No. 1

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Deutsche Motette, Op. 62 (1913)

Zueignung, Op. 10 No. 1
Olympische Hymne, for chorus and orchestra (1934)
Die Gttin im Putzzimmer (1935)
Mnnerchre (1935)
An den Baum Daphne (1943)
Allerseelen, Op. 10 No. 8

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Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) (1948)

References
Notes
1. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Richard_Strauss.aspx
2. Boyden 1999, p.
3. Kennedy 1999, p. 69
4. Kennedy 1999, p. 395
5. Tim Ashley, "Feuersnot (http://www.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story
/0,3604,404766,00.html)". The Guardian (London), 30 November
2000. Retrieved on 27 October 2007.
6. Derrick Puffett et al, Richard Strauss: "Salome"
(http://books.google.com/books?id=ABrNsZOXIr4C) (1989), p. 4
7. Kennedy 1999, p. 145
8. Kennedy 1999, p. 149
9. The five seasons 2008/9 to 2012/13: Composers
(http://operabase.com/top.cgi?lang=en&). Operabase. (Note:
"Composer and opera tables are based on counts of performance
runs over the five seasons from 2008/09 to 2012/13, i.e. how many
times a work was programmed not the number of performances.")
10. The five seasons 2008/9 to 2012/13: Operas (expanded)
(http://operabase.com/top.cgi?lang=en&break=0&show=opera&
no=100&nat=). Operabase. (Note: "Return to main statistics page
for an explanation of the figures". The main statistics page says:
"Composer and opera tables are based on counts of performance
runs over the five seasons from 2008/09 to 2012/13, i.e. how many
times a work was programmed not the number of performances.")
11. Gilliam, New Grove online
12. Kennedy 1999, p. 274.
13. Kennedy 1999, p. 293
14. Quoted on (http://exploringmusic.wfmt.com/listen-to-theshow/151/strauss-richard)Exploring Music (2004) on the WFMT
Radio Network; Episode 5 of 5 of "Richard Strauss", first aired 9
January 2004.
15. Reuth 1993, p. 402
16. Kennedy 1999, pp. 281282
17. Kennedy 1999, p. 285
18. Kennedy 1999, p. 297

19. Kennedy, Michael (1978), Review of "A Confidential Matter: The

Letters of Richard Strauss and Stefan Zweig, 19311935" in Music
& Letters, Vol. 59, No. 4, October 1978. pp. 472475.
20. Kennedy 1999, p. 316
21. Kennedy 1999, p. 339
22. Ross (2009), p. 338
23. Kennedy 1999, p. 361
24. Ross 2009, p.
25. McGlaughlin, Bill. Exploring Music, Episode 5 of 5 of "Richard
Strauss" (http://exploringmusic.wfmt.com/listen-to-the-show/151
/strauss-richard), first aired January 9, 2004.
26. Portrait of Sir Georg Solti., documentary (1984), directed by
Valerie Pitts
27. Kennedy, p. 394
28. Kennedy, p. 395
29. Kennedy 1999, p. 365
30. Kennedy 1999, p. 3
31. Shirley, Hugo (2012). "In Search of Strauss" in Journal of the
Royal Musical Association, vol. 137, issue 1, pp. 187192
32. Hepokoski, James, "The Second Cycle of Tone Poems" in
Youmans (ed.), p. 78
33. League of American Orchestras
(http://www.americanorchestras.org/knowledge-researchinnovation/orr-survey/orr-archive.html)
34. Arkivemusic (http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical
/NameList?featured=1&role_wanted=1). The ranking is Debussy,
Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Strauss, Prokofiev.
35. Boulez (2003), p.
36. Schonberg, p.
37. Schonberg (1967), p.
38. Peter Gutmann, "Richard Strauss Conducts"
(http://www.classicalnotes.net/reviews/strauss.html) on
classicalnotes.net

Cited sources
Boulez, Pierre (trans. Richard Strokes) (2003), Boulez on Conducting: Conversations with Ccile Gilly, London. Faber and Faber.
ISBN 0-571-21967-5.
Boyden, Matthew (1999), Richard Strauss, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Ltd; Boston, MA: Northeastern Press. ISBN
1-55553-418-X.
Dubal, David (2003), The Essential Canon of Classical Music, North Point Press, ISBN 0-86547-664-0.
Gilliam, Bryan, "Richard Strauss" (http://www.grovemusic.com) in grovemusic.com (subscription required). (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.)
Kennedy, Michael (1999), Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma, Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN
0-521-027748 ISBN 978-0521027748
Murray, David (1998), "Richard Strauss", in Stanley Sadie, (Ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. Three, pp. 565575.
London: MacMillan Publishers, Inc. 1998. ISBN 0-333-73432-7, ISBN 1-56159-228-5.
Reuth, Ralf Georg. Goebbels. (http://books.google.com/books?id=9gdoAAAAMAAJ&
q=%22times+when+an+artist+of+my+rank+has+to+ask+a+pipsqueak%22&
dq=%22times+when+an+artist+of+my+rank+has+to+ask+a+pipsqueak%22&hl=en&ei=XdnLTMS-BIu6sAPK5s3jDg&
sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA) Harcourt Brace, 1993
Ross, Alex (2009), The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. ISBN
978-0-374-24939-7.
Schonberg, Harold C. (1967), The Great Conductors. New York: Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-671-20735-0.
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.
Selective bibliography

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Richard Strauss - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Strauss

Del Mar, Norman (3 vols. 1962-1973). Richard Strauss: A Critical Commentary on his Life and Works. London: Barrie & Jenkins.
ISBN 0-214-15735-0. Ithaca, New York: Cornell Univ Press, 1986. ISBN 0-8014-9319-6
Gilliam, Bryan (1999). The Life of Richard Strauss. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-57895-7.
Karpath, Ludwig and Strauss, Richard (19051936). The handwritten correspondence between 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 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.
Kater, Michael (2000). Composers of the Nazi Era London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195099249
Kennedy, Michael. "Richard Strauss", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. Vol. London,
Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1998. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
Kennedy, Michael (2006). The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4
Osborne, Charles (1991). The Complete Operas of Richard Strauss. New York City: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80459-X.
Tuchman, Barbara W. (1966, reprinted 1980). The Proud Tower chapter 6. Macmillan, London. ISBN 0-333-30645-7.
Wilhelm, Kurt (1989). Richard Strauss: An Intimate Portrait. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01459-0.

External links
Richard Strauss online (http://www.richardstrauss.at/html_e/17_willkommen
/0fs_index.html)
Richard Strauss Institute (http://www.richard-strauss-institut.de/index.php3), in
English (http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http:
//www.richard-strauss-institut.de/&ei=eUzSTKmNH4HCsAPT-KWSCw&
sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CB0Q7gEwAA&
prev=/search%3Fq

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Strauss unpacked: A guide to one of the 20th century's great composers, Kate Hopkins, Royal Opera House (http://www.roh.org.uk
/news/the-operas-of-richard-strauss?gclid=CMK_m8rJ0sICFSbHtAodgGAAfg)
Richard-Strauss-Quellenverzeichnis (RSQV) (http://www.rsi-rsqv.de)
Free scores by Richard Strauss at the International Music Score Library Project
Richard Strauss material (http://bbc.co.uk/richardstrauss) in the BBC Radio 3 archives
Works by or about Richard Strauss (http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n79-41680) in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
Free scores by Richard Strauss in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
In America with Richard Strauss: Elisabeth Schumann's 1921 diary (http://www.elisabethschumann.org/1921diary.htm)
"Strauss, Richard". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
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Categories: 1864 births 1949 deaths 19th-century classical composers 20th-century classical composers Ballet composers
General Directors of the Vienna State Opera German classical composers German conductors (music) German male composers
German opera composers Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society Male classical composers
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People from Munich People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Recipients of the Pour le Mrite (civil class) Romantic composers
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
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