Born:
11 June 1864; Munich, German Confederation
Died:
8 September 1949; Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany
Nationality:
German
Occupation:
Composer, Conductor, Pianist, Violinist
Richard Strauss was a German
composer, conductor, pianist and violinist who was born on June 11, 1864 and
died on September 8, 1949. Strauss, one of the leading composers of the late
Romantic and early Modern eras, has been described as one of the successors of
Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt.
Strauss with his wife and son (1910)
Strauss began composing in 1870 at
the age of six, and then continued to compose until his death for nearly 80
years. His works cover almost all kinds of classical music genres, but he has
been particularly successful with “tone poems” and “operas.”
His first tone
poem, which was widely acclaimed, was “Don Juan,” then it was followed by other
works, including “Death and Transfiguration”, “Till Eulenspiegel's Merry
Pranks”, “Also sprach Zarathustra”, “Don Quixote”, “Ein Heldenleben”,
“Symphonia Domestica”, and “An Alpine Symphony”.
His first internationally
acclaimed opera was "Salome" using the German libretto by Hedwig
Lachmann which was a translation of the French play “Salomé” by Oscar Wilde.
Subsequently, with librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal he made other well-received
operas such as “Elektra”, “Der Rosenkavalier”, “Ariadne auf Naxos”, “Die Frau ohne
Schatten”, “Die ägyptische Helena”, and “Arabella.”
His last operas “Daphne”,
“Friedenstag”, “Die Liebe der Danae” and “Capriccio” used libretti by Austrian
theater historian Joseph Gregor. Other famous works of Strauss include two
symphonies, lieder including “Four Last Songs”, “Violin Concerto in D minor”,
“Horn Concerto No. 1”, “Horn Concerto No. 2”, “Oboe Concerto” and other
instrumental works such as “Metamorphosen.”
Strauss was a famous conductor and
enjoyed the status of celebrity as his works became standards of orchestral and
operatic repertoire. In addition to his own works, he received great acclaim
for his interpretations of the works of Liszt, Mozart, and Wagner.
Strauss conducting (c.1900)
Strauss, who learned conducting
from Hans von Bülow, began his conducting career as Bülow's assistant with the
Meiningen Court Orchestra in 1883. After Bülow's resignation in 1885, Strauss
served as primary conductor of that orchestra for five months before being
appointed as the conducting staff of the Bavarian State Opera, where he served
as third conductor from 1886 to 1889. Then, from 1889 to 1894, Strauss was the
principal conductor of the Deutsches Nationaltheater and Staatskapelle Weimar.
Richard Strauss
In 1894, he conducted at the Bayreuth Festival, conducting Wagner's Tannhäuser
with his wife, soprano singer Pauline de Ahna, singing Elisabeth. Then, he
served as principal conductor of the Bavarian State Opera from 1894 to 1898,
and then from 1898 to 1913 as principal conductor of the Berlin State Opera.
From 1919 to 1924, he was principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera and
co-founded the Salzburg Festival in 1920.
Pauline de Ahna Strauss (c.1900)
In 1933, Strauss was appointed to
two important positions under the Nazi German, such as head of the
Reichsmusikkammer and principal conductor of the Bayreuth Festival. The latter
position he accepted was vacant because the conductor Arturo Toscanini had
resigned from the position in protest against the Nazi Party.
Strauss on the cover of TIME (1938)
In accepting
these positions, some criticized Strauss for collaborating with the Nazis.
However, Strauss' daughter-in-law, Alice Grab Strauss, was a Jew and his
cooperation with the Nazis was mostly to save her life and the lives of his
grandchildren. He was not interested in politics, and the reason he accepted
the Reichsmusikkammer position was to preserve the works of Debussy, Mahler,
and Mendelssohn, who were banned by the Nazi Party, and to strengthen the
copyright protections for composers.
Stamp issued (1954)
Moreover, Strauss insisted that he would
work his opera, “Die schweigsame Frau,” along with a Jewish librettist, Stefan
Zweig, resulting in being fired from the positions of the Reichsmusikkammer and
Bayreuth.
Strauss villa at Garmisch-Partenkirchen
His opera "Friedenstag", which premiered just before the
outbreak of World War II, was a criticism of the Nazis, which attempted to
persuade Germans to give up violence for peace.
Star on the Walk of Fame, Vienna
In 1948, a year before his
death, he was cleared of any wrongdoing by a denazification tribunal in Munich.
Thank you.
Richard Strauss-Hof Monument
